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  Jailed Priest Files Personal Details
Kuhn Gives Sexual, Psychological Data in New-Trial Bid

By Rob Modic
Dayton Daily News
March 9, 2005

Dayton — Claiming his previous attorneys failed him, the Rev. Thomas Kuhn, serving a 30-day jail sentence for violating his probation for public indecency, filed a slew of private documents, including his psychological assessment and sexual history, in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

Kuhn, 63, convicted in July after he pleaded no contest to public indecency and 10 other misdemeanors stemming from providing alcohol to minors, is seeking to withdraw his plea and go to trial.

In an affidavit filed late Monday, Kuhn claims his previous attorneys, Roger J. Makely and Christopher R. Conard, did not fully inform him of legal defenses.

"The discussions were always couched in terms of minimizing embarrassment to the archdiocese and me," Kuhn said in the sworn statement.

Kuhn has since fired Makely and Conard and retained Dayton attorney Dwight Brannon.

Conard declined comment, indicating he and Makely have not received a waiver from Kuhn relieving them of their duty to preserve attorney-client privilege.

Among the documents filed with Kuhn's affidavit is a confidential psychological evaluation dated Sept. 1, 2004, addressed to the auxiliary bishop of Cincinnati.

The report said Kuhn denied sexual attraction to minors and said he has had two relationships with adult males, one that lasted 25 years.

Kuhn recalled sexual experimentation with other boys as a young teenager in the Boy Scouts, the report said. He had a sexual relationship with a fellow seminarian between his third and fourth year of theology, the report said.

The investigation of Kuhn began in May 2002 when a secretary in his parish office at St. Henry Church in Miami Twp. found male pornography and some letters he had written but never sent to a teenage boy, the report said.

Teresa Hiett, assistant Montgomery County prosecutor assigned to Kuhn's case, said Tuesday that she had not seen the documents filed and declined comment.

 
 

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