CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago
[with video]
By Rob Elgas | Monday, Apr 21, 2014
A witness has come forward with new allegations against a Chicago priest who was reinstated to his parish just last week.
Father Michael O’Connell, of St. Alphonsus Church, was cleared of any wrongdoing in a previous case, but now the Cook County Sheriff’s Department have decided to reopen the case.
An Arizona man claims he saw O’Connell sexually abuse a young man 15 years ago. He says it happened in a Gold’s Gym in the south suburbs when a man he only knew as “Mike,” inappropriately touch the teenager.
“Now, I feel with this victim coming forward and people are starting to question him, then maybe my story is more believable,” said the man, who know lives in Arizona and asked that his identity not be revealed for fear of retaliation.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.