TAMPA (FL)
Tampa Bay Times
June 3, 2019
By Kathryn Varn
A 71-year-old retired priest accused this week of sexual battery had been arrested 20 years ago in a prostitution sting, according to police.
In July 1999, Clearwater police arrested Koumianos Hatzileris on a charge of soliciting a prostitute on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard. He was 52 then, wearing his black priest robes and collar, when he approached a woman who turned out to be an undercover detective and offered to pay her $20 for sex, according to a police report.
Hatzileris founded the Dormition of Theotokos at 1910 Douglas Ave. in Clearwater, a parish affiliated with the Church of Genuine Orthodox Christians of America. The church formed in the 1950s after a contentious break from the Eastern Orthodox Church by a group unhappy with the main church’s direction. The parish is not affiliated with St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tarpon Springs, a member parish of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
After his 1999 arrest, the church suspended Hatzileris for three or four years, said Bishop Christodoulos Michaels of Theoupolis. Hatzileris eventually returned to the Clearwater parish and worked as a priest until he retired two weeks ago due to age.
Church officials took the same action Monday, after Tarpon Springs police announced they had arrested Hatzileris on two sexual battery charges.
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