ORLANDO (FL)
Orlando Sentinel
By Christopher Sherman and Mark I. Pinsky | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted December 22, 2004
The Orlando police detective who handled the allegation of sexual misconduct against a visiting priest said the case never advanced beyond an informal investigation because there was not enough evidence the encounter was lewd.
A visiting Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Gary, Ind., the Rev. Richard Emerson, was accused of grabbing a preteen boy in the groin or hitting him in the pelvic area on the sideline of a soccer game in Orlando in the late 1980s, said Detective Jonathan O'Hern of the department's Crimes Against Children unit.
"We determined that it probably wasn't sufficient to establish any lewd conduct," O'Hern said. There were not accusations of sexual comments or advances, he said.
The Diocese of Gary investigated the charges against Emerson from late May of 2004, when it received them from the Diocese of Orlando, until Dec. 18, when it announced Emerson's suspension.
That suspension "was based solely upon the Florida allegation," said Brian Olszewski, a spokesman for the Indiana diocese.