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  Priest Charged with Rape Makes Bail, Won't Talk

By Patrick May
Mercury News [Saratoga CA]
April 2, 2006

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/
local/states/california/peninsula/14246208.htm

The Rev. Rolando "Randy" Benas, the priest from Saratoga's Sacred Heart Parish arrested last week on rape charges, has bailed out of Santa Clara County Jail, officials said Saturday.

Benas, 45, had been held on $200,000 bail after his arrest for the alleged assault early Tuesday of an Oregon woman he had counseled over the phone the past year. Police said the rape occurred in a Sunnyvale motel room where the woman had stopped during a trip to San Diego. Benas, who faces up to eight years in prison, is expected to be arraigned this week.

"I don't want to talk to anyone right now," said Benas, reached by phone Saturday morning. It was unclear where the priest is staying. No one returned calls to his family's home in San Jose. And Monsignor Francis Cilia, vicar general for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose, said Saturday that Benas would not be living at Sacred Heart while he remained on administrative leave.

 
 

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