Investigation Ends into Alleged Inappropriate Communication between Priest and Teen

By Danae King
The Columbus Dispatch
April 12, 2018

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180412/investigation-ends-into-alleged-inappropriate-communication-between-priest-and-teen

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has stopped investigating allegations of inappropriate communication with a teenager against a local priest who killed himself in December.

The Rev. James Csaszar, 44, who was serving at the Church of the Resurrection in New Albany, was placed on leave in November by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus.

The priest killed himself Dec. 20 by jumping from a Chicago hotel balcony. In a nine-page, hand-written suicide note, Csaszar apologized to his loved ones and denied sexual contact with any child or adult.

The BCI investigation began after the Columbus Diocese reported to police that it had received allegations in October made by a teenage boy’s mother of an inappropriate relationship between Csaszar and her son. The mother provided the diocese with 227 pages of texts between her son and Csaszar, according to the investigative report.

The diocese also reported finding two unauthorized bank accounts in New Lexington, where Csaszar served as a priest from 2005 to 2016. Money appeared to have been moving in and out the accounts, with some going to a juvenile. A total of $50,000 was misappropriated, the diocese said. Authorities and the diocese did not say if the juvenile involved was the woman’s son.