Priest Defrocked for Child Sex Abuse Dies in 3-fatality Crash

Deadline Detroit
January 7, 2016

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/14006/priest_defrocked_for_sexual_child_abuse_dies_in_3-fatality_crash#.VpAFC_mLS01

Joseph Sito

A former priest who was defrocked over sexual abuse allegations, was one of three people killed in a car crash in Livonia earlier this week, The Detroit News reports.

Joseph Sito, 80, of Livonia, who had been a priest at several Mettro Detroit parishes, died in the Monday accident. Two people in another car also died.

The News writes that Sito was laicized by the Vatican in 2004, which means the Vatican returned him to the status of layman and severed his ties with the archdiocese.

“It’s a tragic accident,” Ned McGrath, spokesman for the local Archdiocese, according to the News reports. “I guess he had a medical event. Three people are dead. It’s a terrible thing.”

According to media reports, Sito was headed westbound on Five Mile about 4 p.m. Monday in his Mercury Grand Marquis when he crossed the center line and struck a Ford Focus, killing the two occupants in that car: Suzanne Wernette-Robb, 67, of Redford Township, and her mother Bernadine Karby, 88, of Livonia.

The News reports:

Sito was defrocked because of sexual abuse of boys, according to Detroit News archives. He was placed on administrative leave in 1993 after allegations of sexual abuse with minors, then given additional restrictions after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in another abuse case in 2002. At the time he was put on leave, Sito was pastor of St. Cletus Church in Warren.