MICHIGAN
Huron Daily Tribune
By Brenda Battel
Tribune Staff Writer
[wtih documents]
May 15, 2018
BAD AXE — A prosecutor handling a sexual abuse investigation involving priests from the Diocese of Saginaw denies threatening the Diocese in a 2004 letter.
Mark Gaertner is a former Huron County prosecutor who now works as an assistant prosecutor in Saginaw County. The Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office is working with law enforcement regarding investigations of prior sexual abuse of minors by priests in the Diocese.
Gaertner was the Huron County prosecutor when Bad Axe Police investigated a former Bad Axe Priest, Jack E. Leipert, following allegations of sexual abuse while serving at Sacred Heart Church in 2000. In that case, the county elected to not file charges against Leipert.
At the time, a 21-year-old Caseville man claimed Leipert sexually molested him.
The Diocese told the Tribune this week that it was that complaint that led to Leipert’s removal from the ministry in 2001
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