MICHIGAN
NDTV
Associated Press
JACKSON, MICHIGAN: Victims confronted a former Roman Catholic priest in court on Friday as he was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for sexually abusing students at a Michigan high school in the 1980s.
A judge heard more than two hours of testimony from six men who described in detail how James Rapp molested them. Rapp coerced students into having sexual contact while working as a teacher and wrestling coach at Lumen Christi High School in Jackson.
“His crime and position was a murder on my soul,” Andy Russell said. “He’s a monster and his path of destruction extends far further than it ever should have.”
The Associated Press doesn’t typically identify victims of sexual abuse, but Russell has talked publicly to the Jackson Citizen Patriot about what happened at the school.
In February, Rapp, 75, pleaded no contest to criminal sexual conduct. He was in prison in Oklahoma for similar crimes when he was charged in Michigan last year. He worked in Philadelphia; Salt Lake City; Naperville, Illinois; Duncan, Oklahoma; Jackson, Michigan and Lockport, New York before he was defrocked as a priest.
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