CHICAGO (IL)
Patch
Posted by Lorraine Swanson (Editor) , April 22, 2014
Less than a week after he was reinstated to his position as pastor of a Chicago parish, another witness has stepped forward with a new allegation of child sex abuse against Rev. Michael W. O’Connell.
O’Connell returned to his post at St. Alphonsus Church on April 17, after taking a leave of absence from his current parish after he was accused in December 2013 of sexual misconduct with a minor while serving at Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park, 20 years ago.
An investigation by the Cook County Sheriff’s office, working with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, was unable to find enough evidence to support the charges, Barbara Blaine said, president of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Now, another former south suburban man has stepped forward, stating that he witnessed O’Connell abusing a young male teen at an Orland Park fitness center sometime in 1999 or 2000.
The witness, now 33 and living in Nevada, contacted SNAP in Chicago after learning that the Archdiocese had allowed O’Connell to return to ministry.
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