Defrocked Priest Kimball Is Found Dead, by Leslie Fulbright, San Francisco Chronicle [California], September 15, 2006

Defrocked Priest Kimball Is Found Dead

By Leslie Fulbright
San Francisco Chronicle [California]
September 15, 2006

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/15/
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(09-15) 13:17 PDT Windsor — A 62-year-old former priest convicted of molestation and assaulting a Chronicle photographer was found dead early today, according to Sonoma County authorities.

After receiving a call for a welfare check, police found Donald Wren Kimball dead in his Windsor home. There was no evidence of criminal activity, according to Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Duke. An autopsy is scheduled to determine the cause of death.

The Roman Catholic priest was defrocked after he was convicted in 2002 of two counts of lewd conduct for fondling a 13-year-old girl at St. John's Church in Healdsburg. His conviction was later overturned when the Supreme Court struck down a law extending the statute of limitations on sex crimes involving children.

Donald Kimball, a former Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl, listens as he is sentenced to prison in Santa Rosa on June 7, 2002. Kimball was found dead early Friday, according to Sonoma County authorites.
Photo by The Associated Press, 2002, John Burgess

Kimball was convicted in 2003 of felony assault for shoving a Chronicle news photographer's camera in her face during a recess in his molestation trial.

He was sentenced to three years for that crime.

E-mail Leslie Fulbright at lfulbright@sfchronicle.com.