Police Report Details Brutal Attack at Church
By Brian Haynes
Las Vegas Review-Journal [Las Vegas NV]
February 1, 2007
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-01-Thu-2007/news/12323947.html
Michaelina Bellamy felt her life slipping away.
She was pinned on the floor of the church offices as the Rev. George Chaanine's hands squeezed her throat, she told police. She was losing consciousness and thought the end was near.
Then she started to pray. Suddenly, Chaanine stopped, stood up and walked to the door.
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| George Chaanine Priest at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church is on the lam |
"I am over the edge," the priest muttered. "I am going to kill myself. Wait for fifteen minutes. I will get you an ambulance."
He walked to his car and drove away. Las Vegas police have been hunting for him ever since.
Bellamy's account of the Friday afternoon attack was included in a police report released Wednesday. The report details interviews Las Vegas police detectives conducted with Bellamy after the attack at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church, 3050 Alta Drive, near Rancho Drive.
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| Michaelina Bellamy Church employee said she was hit over the head with a wine bottle |
Chaanine, 52, is wanted on charges of attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon, sexual assault with a deadly weapon and other related charges.
Since Chaanine disappeared, authorities in the Northern California community of Monterey have received reports of two possible sightings. The first came about 1 p.m. Tuesday at a Bank of America branch in downtown Monterey, a police spokesman there said. Within an hour, local police were on the lookout for the priest and his cream-colored 2005 Buick LeSabre.
Police searched about 45 motels but found no signs of Chaanine or his car, the spokesman said.
Police received word of another possible sighting on Wednesday, the day a local newspaper ran a photo of the fugitive priest. The tipster told police that a man fitting Chaanine's description had asked for directions to a local conference center where a ceremony was held the day before to install a new Roman Catholic bishop for the area, police said.
The case is scheduled for this weekend's broadcast of "America's Most Wanted." Bellamy's lawyer, Bob Massi, said she will appear on the show.
In her statement to police, Bellamy, 54, said she was sitting at her desk in the church office when Chaanine walked up from behind and hit her in the head with a green wine bottle. He struck her three times until the bottle broke, then grabbed her hair and dragged her down a hall toward his office, the report says.
She fought back but lost consciousness. She awoke to find Chaanine groping her breasts under her shirt and rubbing her genitals under her pants, she told police. She continued to fight, squeezing his testicles and biting him on the left arm, the report says.
He responded by hitting her, throwing her to the ground and stomping on her hand, the report says. He then sat on her, grabbed her throat and began to squeeze, she told detectives. That's when she thought she was going to die and started praying.
After the attack, Bellamy was taken to University Medical Center. Doctors used 20 staples to close a gash on her head. She also was treated for a broken hand and bruises on her throat, head and knees, the report says.
A police search of the church office turned up physical evidence of the attack, including fingernail pieces, a broken bottle and blood.
Bellamy, a professional singer who has performed with Engelbert Humperdinck and other artists and starred in "Folies Bergere" in the 1980s, told detectives that Chaanine made her uncomfortable before the attack. He told her he had "been with other women at other" parishes, and on each of the three days before the attack, Chaanine asked Bellamy if she was ready to go to heaven, she told police. The day before the attack, Chaanine made a similar comment to Bellamy's daughter, who worked as his assistant, according to the report.
Bellamy told police that Chaanine also talked about fighting a war in his native Lebanon and said he owned a handgun and a shotgun and "would not be taken down," the report says. He also told Bellamy that the only way he could get out of his home country was to become a Catholic priest, so he secured a passport and traveled to the United States to become a man of the cloth, the report says.
He was ordained in 1996 and had worked at Our Lady of Las Vegas for about three years. Before that, he worked at churches in El Paso, Texas, and Wheeling, W.Va.
The Diocese of Las Vegas announced Chaanine's suspension Saturday but has said little about the incident outside of a written statement issued this week through public relations firm Rogich Communications. A secretary for Las Vegas Bishop Joseph A. Pepe on Wednesday referred questions to the firm, and a spokeswoman at the company did not return phone calls Wednesday.
John Hunt, a Las Vegas lawyer and parishioner at Our Lady of Las Vegas, said news of the attack shocked many in the congregation. Chaanine was well respected among church members, he said, and as far as Hunt knew, no one had complained about him.
Chaanine was helping to heal the congregation after his predecessor, the Rev. Robert Petekiewicz, left amid accusations of financial misdealings, Hunt said.
A group of former employees, including the church bookkeeper and the principal of the school affiliated with the church, have sued Petekiewicz and the diocese, saying they were forced from their jobs after trying to report the financial improprieties.
"Father George, I thought, was on the right track," Hunt said. "If he had a dark side, we weren't aware of it."
Review-Journal staff writer David Kihara contributed to this report.
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