ENID (OK)
Enid News & Eagle
November 7, 2018
By Mitchell Willetts
The attorney representing the Rev. James Mickus, a Catholic priest with Enid ties facing allegations of sexual abuse, said he might soon file a defamation lawsuit against the archbishop of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese.
In a letter to Archbishop Rev. Paul Coakley, Enid-based attorney Stephen Jones wrote he is investigating whether Coakley has defamed Mickus by omitting critical facts about the allegations made against his client.
Allegations of abuse first surfaced against Mickus in 2002, while he was a pastor at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid. The accuser said Mickus had sexually abused him nearly 20 years earlier in a former parish. Mickus subsequently was removed from ministry while an archdiocese review board investigated the claims.
Mickus was reinstated in 2003 after the review board found insufficient evidence to support the claims made against him.
In a statement released Sunday, Coakley announced allegations of sexual abuse of a minor are under review and that Mickus would be removed from ministry pending investigation.
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