INDIANA/NEW MEXICO
Journal and Courier
Written by
David Smith
A defrocked priest who recently signed an out-of-court agreement not to work with or around youths spent years as a mental health counselor in Lafayette, including a job counseling adolescents and sex offenders.
This week, three former Lafayette employers of Charles “Chuck” Cichanowicz say they never received any complaints about his behavior during a 20-year period spanning 1989 to 2009.
Those years in Lafayette came after Cichanowicz’ tenure as a Franciscan friar for two churches in the Diocese of Gallup, N.M.
Cichanowicz, now living outside West Lafayette, recently reached out-of-court settlements with three Navajo men who claimed they were sexually abused by him when they were teens in the 1980s. The alleged victims claim they suffered mental anguish and other problems later in life as a result of the abuse. Neither Cichanowicz nor the other defendants, including the Catholic church and Franciscan order, admitted wrongdoing.
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