RENO (NV)
Reno Gazette-Journal
Written by
Jaclyn O’Malley
An elderly defrocked priest who moved to Reno and once ran a halfway house for parolees pleaded guilty in a Denver federal court to a charge that he masturbated on a commercial airline flight.
Daniel Drinan, 64, of Reno, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of indecent exposure on a plane related to his Sept. 8 arrest. In 1977 he was ordained as a Claretians priest, and later served in Texas before he was defrocked in 2002, after a child’s parents reported to police they didn’t like how he touched the child, according to news reports in Texas covering the case. Police later cleared him of any inappropriate behavior with the child, the reports said.
Attorneys agreed in court papers that they will reccomend to the judge that Drinan receive two years probation for the airplane fondling and be fined $2,500. A sentencing hearing had not yet been set.
Drinan was arrested after authorities said he was exposing his genitals while viewing pornography on his laptop during a Southwest Airlines flight from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport to Denver.
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