FREELAND (MI)
MLive
March 9, 2018
By Michael Kransz
The Diocese of Saginaw now says the Freeland priest accused of sexually assaulting a teen and a man was once concerned about “rumors” and had been investigated on suspicions of sexual abuse.
The announcement March 8 comes a week after diocese officials previously stated that, “to the best of their knowledge,” 71-year-old Rev. Robert DeLand Jr. was not investigated nor accused before of “priestly misconduct.”
In the statement, diocese officials say DeLand was investigated in 2005 after a woman asked whether her brother, who committed suicide in 1993, was sexually abused by DeLand in the 1970s.
The sexual abuse probe was handled by an “independent professional investigator,” and the suspicions were later deemed unfounded by the Rev. Robert Carlson, who was bishop of Saginaw at the time, the Diocesan Review Board and the family of the man, according to the statement.
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