UPDATED Friday at 11:30 a.m.: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says prosecutors have brought sexual abuse charges against five Catholic priests as part of her office's investigation into clergy abuse.
Nessel said Friday that the priests served in dioceses in Detroit, Lansing and Kalamazoo, and that they've been charged with various counts of criminal sexual conduct. She says four of them have been arrested in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, and that the fifth awaits extradition from India.
A sixth priest faces an administrative complaint and has had his counseling license suspended by the state.
Nessel is among more than a dozen attorneys general investigating or reviewing clergy abuse following a shocking Pennsylvania grand jury report last year detailing seven decades of child sex abuse by more than 300 predator priests.
She has asked the state's seven dioceses to suspend their own internal review processes until her office's probe is complete.
___
10:34 a.m.
A Catholic priest who admitted when he resigned from a Flint-area parish that he had sexually abused a child has been charged with several counts of sexual assault dating back decades.
The Detroit News and The Flint Journal report that prosecutors charged 80-year-old Vincent DeLorenzo on Thursday with six counts of both first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct.
The Diocese of Lansing says eight people have accused DeLorenzo of sexual abuse and that he's being defrocked.
Court records list DeLorenzo as a Lantana, Florida, resident, but The Associated Press couldn't find a listed phone number for him in that area and wasn't able to reach him for comment.
He served several Michigan churches and resigned from Holy Redeemer in Burton in 2002. He wasn't charged at that time.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is expected to discuss the case Friday while giving an update on her clergy abuse investigation.
From the Attorney General's Office:
- Timothy Michael Crowley, 69, Lansing Diocese, was charged in Washtenaw County with four felony counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) 1, a maximum sentence of life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring, and four felony counts of CSC 2 – a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Crowley, who was a priest in various parishes, including St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor, was arrested Thursday in Tempe, Arizona.
- Neil Kalina, 63, Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged in Macomb County with one felony count of CSC 4, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring. Kalina, who was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township, was arrested Thursday in Littlerock, California.
- Vincent DeLorenzo, 80, Lansing Diocese, was charged in Genesee County with three felony counts of CSC 1, a maximum sentence of life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring, and three felony counts of CSC 2, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. DeLorenzo, who was a priest at Holy Redeemer Church in Burton, was arrested Thursday in Marion County, Florida.
- Patrick Casey, 55, Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged in Wayne County with one felony count of CSC 3, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Casey, who was a priest at St. Theodore of Canterbury Parish in Westland, was arrested Thursday in Oak Park, Michigan.
- Jacob Vellian, 84, Kalamazoo Diocese, was charged with two counts of Rape, a maximum sentence of life in prison. Vellian was a priest at St. John the Evangelist Parish, Benton Harbor, and now lives in Kerala, India.
