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  Priest Facing Another Charge

Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida)
March 7, 1997

Prosecutors in Clearwater added a second sex-crime charge against a Catholic priest from Sarasota on Thursday. The new charge relates to the same case.

Fred Schaub, assistant state attorney with the 6th Judicial Circuit, said the Rev. Jeremiah Michael Spillane will be prosecuted for seduction of a child by a computer, as well as for attempting to entice a child under the age of 16 to commit a lewd and lascivious act.

Police said a detective, posing as a 13-year-old boy, had corresponded by computer for about three weeks with Spillane, who was on staff at Sarasota's Church of the Incarnation and was living in the church's rectory.

The priest was arrested Feb. 10 when he arrived for what was supposed to be a sexual encounter with the boy.

Spillane was released on bail.

The lewd and lascivious charge is a second-degree felony carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in state prison. Seduction of a child by a computer is a third-degree felony with a maximum prison sentence of five years.

 
 

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