STOCKTON (CA)
Modesto Bee
News-Sentinel (Lodi)
STOCKTON — The father of a 37-year-old man suing Father Michael Kelly testified on Tuesday that his son told him that Kelly had sexually assaulted him.
The father, whose name is being withheld because his son is an alleged sexual assault victim, said he was visiting his son in 2007. They were saying their goodbyes when the son blurted out, “I was (sexually assaulted) by Father Kelly,” the man said.
However, the son drove away without elaborating, the father said, and calls to his son were not successful, he told a jury at San Joaquin County Superior Court. Due to statute of limitations laws, Kelly was never criminally charged.
Kelly has been the pastor of St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford since 2004 and previously served at parishes in Stockton, Sonora, Tracy, Modesto and Ceres.
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