Former Catholic brother returned to face Mississippi charges

UNITED STATES
Associated Press

September 2, 2020

By Michael Rezendes

A former Catholic brother has been extradited from his home state of Wisconsin to Mississippi, where he faces sexual battery charges in a case involving two impoverished Black boys who say they were pressured as men into accepting paltry payouts to settle their abuse claims.

The men have accused Paul A. West, once a Franciscan Friar and fourth-grade teacher, of molesting them in Mississippi, Wisconsin and New York while they were elementary school students.

West, 60, did not contest his extradition at a hearing in Outagamie Country, Wisconsin on Aug. 17. He arrived at the Leflore County Jail in Greenwood, Mississippi, earlier this week following an investigation by the Mississippi attorney general’s public integrity division. West also has been charged with second-degree sexual assault of a child in Wisconsin.

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