Ex-employees accuse Orchard Lake St. Mary's priest of sexual assault, harassment

By Jessica Dupnack
FOX 2
December 15, 2020

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/ex-employees-accuse-orchard-lake-st-marys-priest-of-sexual-assault-harassment

Father Miroslaw Krol is the CEO and chancellor of Orchard Lake Schools - now on administrative leave.

Orchard Lake St. Mary's Preparatory is a prestigious Catholic high school in Oakland County where the top priest is accused in a lawsuit of hosting sex parties off-campus and on-campus, and allegedly sexually assaulted his employees - including two priests.

 "This was not an out of the blue, first-time allegation," said attorney Jennifer Salvatore.

Salvatore says her clients are adults, not students. She's representing a former priest and former employee who's a dad and husband.

They have similar stories of unwanted sexual advances by Father Miroslaw Krol. He's the CEO and chancellor of Orchard Lake Schools - now on administrative leave. 

"This is my first priest and involving the church, I'm Catholic, and this is very disturbing for me as an attorney," Salvatore said.

In the complaint, Krol is accused of luring the men to his apartment on campus where alcohol was consumed and he'd allegedly, aggressively grope them. When he was turned down, that led to alleged threats of retaliation from Krol.

 His alleged behavior was reported to the school's board of regents.

"Rather than investigate the matter, look into it, question witnesses and look into other cases brought to them in the past, they turned around and fired my client," Salvatore said.

The employee was terminated, one priest left for another parish, and the other priest named in the body of the suit - was fired by Krol.

"There were concerns raised about his conduct by multiple individuals going back to prior to when my clients were hired by Orchard Lake Schools," she said.

Krol started in a lesser role at Orchard Lake Schools in 2006, when rumors started of his sex parties and sexual harassment. He left for a short time in 2011 and was hired back on in his current position despite warnings of his past. 

"This kind of behavior doesn't just happen overnight so I would not be surprised if we get calls from other people," she said.

In a statement, Orchard Lake Schools said in part "We are confident that the facts, in this case, will prevail, that the legal process will determine their claims lack merit, and that we acted appropriately at all times."