OREGON
KOIN
Amy Frazier and KOIN 6 News Staff
SHERWOOD, Ore. (KOIN) — A Catholic priest who had been a person of interest in the case of a camera hidden in a bathroom left the country in June, and the Archdiocese of Portland did not tell police he was gone.
When Sherwood police went to arrest Fr. Ysrael Bien on misdemeanor charges, they learned he left for The Philippines more than a month ago, a development Sherwood Police Capt. Ty Hanlon called “discouraging.”
“We’ve never been contacted by (the archdiocese) specifically with that kind of information,” Hanlon told KOIN 6 News. “It’s discouraging. We had hoped that we were working together with them on this case. To hear that information is certainly discouraging.”
The case began in June. Police said a teenager discovered a camera disguised as an outlet on a bathroom wall at St. Francis Catholic Church in Sherwood.
He allegedly told Fr. Bien about the camera, who then told the boy he would report it to police. But the priest never reported the discovery, despite telling the boy’s parents he did.
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