Fr. Carlos Martins pleads not guilty to charges of battery after relic tour incident

CREST HILL (IL)
Catholic Vote [Madison, WI]

January 27, 2025

By Grace Porto

Noted exorcist Fr. Carlos Martins pleaded not guilty Jan. 27 to charges of battery in relation to a November incident that occurred in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois.

Stella Maris Media reports that Will County State Attorney General’s office charged Fr. Martins Jan. 22 with Class A battery, which carries a $100 fine. The charge comes after reports that Fr. Martins, who is a member of the Canadian religious order Companions of the Cross, touched a girl’s hair during a relic tour at the Queen of Apostles parish in the Diocese.

The charges add, however, that the “defendant knowingly without legal justification by any means made physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with I.K., a minor, in that said defendant placed the hair of I.K. in his mouth.”

Stella Maris Media states that during police interviews in November, a male student who witnessed the incident stated that Fr. Martin touched people “without their consent,” then “came up to him and his friends and started to make jokes about him having hair.”

The student then recounted what he witnessed in the interaction between Fr. Martins and the girl. He said that the priest “grabbed [name redacted] hair and put [name redacted] hair in his mouth.” The student said he  and his friends were “laughing about it because they thought it was weird.”

Two other students made similar reports.

Another student, a friend of the girl whose hair Fr. Martins allegedly put in his mouth, said the priest “sat down behind them and began to make growling noises.” The report states that no witnesses corroborated that allegation.

Fr. Martins’ lawyer, Marcella Burke, wrote in a letter posted on X, “These charges are egregious and unfounded. The evidence will show that Fr. Carlos did not ‘floss’ with a student’s hair or ‘growl’ among other completely false and repulsive accusations — this is a takedown of a good priest and an attempted shakedown of the Church. We are confident in the legal process and look forward to our client being fully exonerated.”

Fr. Martins’ religious order released a statement after the Jan. 22 charge.

“On Thursday January 23, 2025 the Companions of the Cross learned that Fr. Carlos Martins, CC, was charged with misdemeanor battery in the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Illinois. This relates to an allegation of misconduct from November of 2024,” the order stated. “After this allegation was received Fr Martins agreed to withdraw from his pastoral ministry. He remains entitled to due process, as is any accused.”

The lawyer’s letter added that Fr. Martins’ withdrawal from ministry “is not to be seen as an admission of guilt but is standard practice today for Catholic clergy.”

The letter added that the faithful should remember that the Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 2477 teaches that each person, under natural law, has a right to their reputation or good name.

Initial reports from the Diocese  stated that Fr. Martins’ relic tour was put on hold and he was asked to leave Queen of Apostles due to “an incident with the priest and some students,” as CatholicVote previously reported.

Later the Diocese stated that the incident was a “boundary violation” that was not of a sexual nature. 

Fr. Martins’ attorney added more details in a cease-and-desist letter that accused the Catholic news outlet The Pillar of defamation. The Pillar initially reported that Fr. Martins’ tour was suspended over “inappropriate conduct with children,” leading some to believe Fr. Martins had sexually abused minors.

“All the facts surrounding The Pillar’s reporting happened in front of a large group of people encompassing multiple grades,” the letter read. “As he always does, Fr. Martins began his interaction with the attendees in ‘chit-chat’ dialogue. He is bald and apt to joke about it as a conversation starter.

“During his conversation with the older students, he made a comment to a student about her long hair, remarking, ‘You and I have almost the same hair style,’ a comment met with giggles. He then remarked that he also once had long hair like hers, and he joked he would ‘floss my teeth with it.’ Again, his comment was met with laughter. He then asked the student, ‘Have you ever flossed with your hair?’ Laughing, she shook her head, no. He then said, ‘Well, you have the perfect length for it,’ as he lifted up a lock from her shoulders to show her its length.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 27 to reflect Fr. Martins’ not guilty plea.

https://catholicvote.org/fr-carlos-martins-rejects-charges-of-battery-after-relic-tour-incident/