FBI charges Chesco priest already facing child porn raps

By Michael P. Rellahan
Daily Times
February 25, 2015

http://www.delcotimes.com/general-news/20150225/fbi-charges-chesco-priest-already-facing-child-porn-raps

MARK HAYNES

PHILADELPHIA >> The FBI has arrested and charged the former SS. Simon and Jude parish priest who was accused last year by local authorities of sending and receiving child pornography on a popular social media site, on which he pretend to be a 16-year-old girl.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia said Tuesday that charges had been brought against Mark Haynes, 55, of Egg Harbor, N.J., on Friday. He was detained on Monday pending a bail hearing in federal court next Tuesday. Haynes previously served parishes in Delaware County. Haynes served at St. Pius X parish in Marple from 2001 to 2005, Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Morton section of Ridley Township from 2005 to 2009, and at Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Havertown section of Haverford from 2009 to 2013.

Haynes face charges of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. The federal complaint against Haynes adopts much of what was laid out by Chester County authorities when they charged him last October with similar crimes.

The investigation began when county detectives received a tip about pornographic images that were being posted from an Instagram account in the name of “Katie.” They tracked that to a computer that was registered to a Simon and Jude email account, officials said.

When Haynes was confronted by detectives in October, he confessed to having child pornography on his computer, and of sending out images to others. He also stated that he had in early 2010 communicated with a young girl by using the name “Katie Caponetti,” and that he and the girl discussed sexual matters over the Internet.

FBI Special Agent Jennifer Morrow, writing in her arrest warrant signed Friday, said that investigators had been able to track down the girl that Haynes had been communicating with as “Katie.”

The girl said that when she was 13, she began emailing with someone she thought was a 16-year-old girl. They discussed sex, and at one point the other girl — actually Haynes — sent her a video that included a naked teenage girl. Investigators were able to find images and videos on Haynes’ computers that had been sent to the girl, whose identity was not revealed in the arrest warrant.

Until his arrest last year, Haynes had served as Simon and Jude’s Parochial Vicar for about one year after having served parishes in Chester, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties. He was ordained in 1985.

He was removed from his position at Simon and Judge after his arrest and placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

It was unclear Wednesday what would happen to the local charges against Haynes. In many cases, local authorities will put their case on hold as the federal case makes its way through the system.

Haynes had been free on $20,000 bail pending trial in Chester County and had waived his preliminary hearing last month.