Indianapolis priest accused of beating his wife is sentenced to home detention

By Holly V. Hays
Indianapolis Star
August 23, 2018

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/23/indianapolis-priest-who-beat-wife-sentenced-home-detention/1072424002/

Luke Reese.

The first married priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis will spend a year under GPS monitoring following his conviction in a 2017 domestic battery case involving his wife. 

Luke Reese, who in June was found guilty of criminal confinement, domestic battery and battery resulting in bodily injury, received a three-year sentence on Aug. 17, court records indicate.

Two years of his sentence are suspended, leaving him to serve a year of home detention with GPS monitoring followed by a year of probation. As part of his sentence, he also will undergo a mental health evaluation and counseling. 

A message left with one of Reese's attorneys was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.

Reese was charged in October 2017 following a September altercation with his wife in which he was alleged to have locked her in the car and repeatedly hit her after finding his wife in a car with another man, according to court documents.

At one point, Reese is alleged to have taken her to Holy Rosary Church, where he served, and continued to strike her inside the church. 

Reese's wife told police they later went to her grandmother's home, where he told her she would stay away from the "temptation" of Indianapolis, according to court documents. Reese planned to have his wife tell her family "what she had done by talking to another man," his wife told police. 

"A priest and you beat her?" her grandmother remembered asking. 

"I could have killed her," Reese replied, according to court documents. 

Court records show Luke Reese filed for divorce in December 2017.

Reese, formerly an Anglican priest, was ordained in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter at Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston in 2016, according to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. He then served as an associate pastor in Indianapolis' Holy Rosary Parish.

Reese was placed on leave after Archdiocese and Ordinariate leaders learned of the charges, barring him from presenting himself as a priest and stripping him of ministerial duties. 

Reese will not return to service in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Greg Otolski, spokesman for the Archdiocese, told IndyStar, but it is up to the Ordinariate to make the final decision regarding further discipline. 

In a statement provided to IndyStar on Thursday, the Ordinariate said steps are being taken to change Reese's status as a priest. The final decision will be made by the Holy See in Vatican City. 

Bishop Steven J. Lopes of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter said in a written statement that the Catholic church is clear in its teachings that domestic violence is not tolerated. 

"Violent behavior among family members is intolerable and unconscionable, countering the core of Christ's call to every family to be a loving, respectful communion of persons," he said. "No circumstance or betrayal ever justifies violence in the home. As a church, we reject any behavior that erodes the inherent dignity of the human person."