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  Priest Won't Be Retried in Long-Ago Detroit Abuse Allegation

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press [Michigan]
April 4, 2006

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060404/NEWS11/60404005

The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said today it will not seek to retry the Rev. Edward Olszewski, four months after the Michigan Supreme Court overturned the Catholic priest's 2002 conviction for allegedly abusing a youth at St. Cecilia parish in Detroit in the 1970s.

When the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in December that he deserved a new trial, Olszewski already had served most of his sentence -- three years of probation -- which was handed down by a trial judge in January 2003.

Olszewski, 72, "was deprived of an impartial jury" because a juror did not disclose during jury selection that she had been sexually molested, the supreme court ruled in December.

Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said the office would pass on a retrial.

"In the interest of judicial economy, it did not make sense to have a retrial," Miller said today. "In light of the defendant serving his entire sentence, there was no point in proceeding."

In 2003, Wayne County Circuit Judge Diane Hathaway sentenced Olszewski, who moved from the Archdiocese of Detroit to the Florida Keys in the 1980s, to three years of probation.

In the 2002 trial, Albert Green testified that Olszewski molested him when Green and two brothers lived at the St. Cecilia rectory while their mother was ill.

Olszewski could not be reached for comment.

One of his attorneys said today that the priest "was moved to tears" by the news.

"This has been a four-year-long ordeal. To have this finally over with and to be vindicated, it was just overwhelming for him," said Liz Jacobs, Olszewski's attorney in his appeals.

Contact PATRICIA MONTEMURRI at 313-223-4538 or pmontemurri@freepress.com.

 
 

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