OHIO
The Plain Dealer
By James F. McCarty, The Plain Dealer
on April 16, 2014
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The chief prosecutor for the Cleveland Metroparks has asked that the Rev. James McGonegal be denied entry into an alternative sentencing program on charges of soliciting sex from an undercover ranger at Edgewater Park last October.
Attorney Anne Eisenhower said the Metroparks’ investigation determined that McGonegal, 69, “regularly engaged in the activity that is the subject of these charges.” That should make the priest ineligible for a plea bargain that would include diversion, she said in a letter sent to prosecutors last month.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court’s electronic data base contains no record of a prior criminal arrest record for McGonegal. The priest’s 2013 criminal case file, however, contains a law enforcement document that lists a May 15, 1986, arrest of McGonegal by Cleveland police charging him with promoting prostitution and soliciting prostitution. There are no further details.
The court record indicates that McGonegal was given an alternative sentence that allowed him to be released on the promoting prostitution charge, and the soliciting charge to be dropped. In 2004, it appears McGonegal had his arrest record expunged, according to the document.
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