CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 6, 2016
For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell,bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)
Accused priest quietly moves to SD
After “counseling,” he sexually harassed a 22 year old
He allegedly “coerced” her & later fired her from her job
A civil lawsuit against him and his Michigan bishop is pending
Group urges SD Catholic officials to “warn parishioners & the public about him”
A priest who was found to have sexually harassed a college student and who faces a pending civil abuse lawsuit has quietly moved to San Diego where he works for a lawyer. A victims group want bishops in California and Michigan to warn parishioners and the public about him.
Six months ago, officials at Central Michigan University ruled that Father Denis Heames sexually harassed then-22 year old Megan Winans. Saginaw Bishop Joseph Cistone ousted the priest, and Winans is now suing both clerics.
Fr. Heames is now a paralegal for attorney Richard McEntyre (619-221-0279) and claims, on his Linked In page, that he moved to California for “family” reasons, making no mention of the lawsuit against him. He also attended San Diego State University.
According to a Michigan newspaper, the lawsuit accuses Fr. Heames, McCaffery, the Saginaw diocese and a Saginaw parish of “battery, defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, negligent supervision and vicarious liability” because Fr. Heames allegedly “abused his authority when he entered into a sexual relationship with (Winans) when he began acting as her spiritual counselor.”
Another defendant in the suit, Trudy McCaffrey, has also moved out of Michigan. She now works for the church in Irene, South Dakota where she’s a “spiritual director” for Broom Tree Retreat, cultivating new priests. (The lawsuit accuses McCaffery of claiming that Winans seduced Heames and had “the spirit of Jezebel.)
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