MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 10/15/2013
University of St. Thomas professor Michael J. Keating told a fellow priest in 2006 that a teenage Italian girl had “seduced” him and he was worried that his colleague might get the wrong impression.
The statement by the fellow priest emerged during a 2006 Chisago County sheriff’s office investigation of Keating, following an allegation by a local woman that he had abused her beginning when she was 13.
The woman, now in her late 20s, filed a lawsuit against Keating on Monday in Ramsey County District Court, alleging sexual battery. The sheriff’s office released its investigative file Tuesday at the request of the Pioneer Press.
Keating, 57, was not criminally charged in the case.
The priest and tenured associate professor of Catholic studies at St. Thomas announced over the weekend that he was taking a leave of absence. A university spokesman said that another instructor has taken over his classes and that Keating is no longer living on campus.
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