CALIFORNIA
Merced Sun-Star
BY SUE NOWICKI
snowicki@modbee.comJ
anuary 14, 2014
The Rev. Michael Kelly faces up to 14 years in prison if he’s convicted of the charges included in a Calaveras criminal grand jury indictment presented Monday to Superior Court Judge John E. Martin. The indictment includes three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child and one count of oral copulation with a child.
It’s the first criminal charges against Kelly, a longtime Stockton Diocese priest who fled to his native Ireland in April 2012 after he was found liable in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing Travis Trotter. The diocese settled that lawsuit with the largest single award in diocesan history — $3.75 million.
A news release said the Calaveras County district attorney’s office will work with the Office of International Affairs in Washington, D.C., to extradite Kelly from Ireland. Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil said it’s a “lengthy” process but the indictment means the statute of limitations won’t expire, “so that we will be able to pursue justice for the victim when Kelly is caught and returned to Calaveras County no matter how long it takes.”
Kelly, who served at Our Lady of Fatima in Modesto from 1973-79 and helped start the Modesto Youth Soccer Association, responded to the indictment in an email to The Bee: “ I can categorically state to you, and to anyone else, that these allegations are totally and completely false. They absolutely never happened.”
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