CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Megan Crepeau
September 6, 2017
[See Judge McWilliams’ punitive damages order, linked from the story. See also the entry about McCormack in the BishopAccountability.org database.]
The accusations against “Father Dan” were seemingly endless.
Court records show more than two dozen boys and young men have alleged Daniel McCormack molested them in their youth, most notably at St. Agatha Parish on Chicago’s Southwest Side, where the young Roman Catholic priest coached basketball, taught algebra and delivered eloquent sermons.
The allegations ranged from inappropriate kissing and touching to sexual assault and dated as far back as the early 1990s. According to the court records, one boy said McCormack abused him on the way back from basketball practice, another in the basement of the rectory and still another during the fourth inning of a White Sox game.
In 2007, more than a year after his arrest sent shock waves through the predominately African-American parish in the Lawndale neighborhood, McCormack pleaded guilty to sexually abusing five boys and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was removed from the priesthood.
Now, almost eight years after McCormack completed his prison term, Illinois prosecutors want him declared a sexually violent person under a little-known and controversial state law that could keep the disgraced former priest indefinitely committed to a state facility with other sex offenders.
A hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Judge Dennis Porter’s courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
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