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	Extradition Hearing Set for Nev. Priest in Assault Case KVOA [Arizona] February 2, 2007 http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6030337 Phoenix -- A Roman Catholic priest must decide Tuesday whether he will fight extradition to Nevada, where he faces charges of beating and sexually assaulting a female employee at his Las Vegas parish. The Rev. George Chaanine, 52, is scheduled for a fugitive of justice hearing at 8 a.m. Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. Chaanine was arrested Thursday in Apache Junction about 30 miles east of Phoenix. He is wanted in Las Vegas on charges of attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and battery with a deadly weapon in the Jan. 26 incident. Chaanine is being held in a Phoenix jail on a $1 million bond on a charge of being a fugitive from justice. FBI Special Agent David Staretz said a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution would be dropped so Chaanine could be extradited to Las Vegas to face the more serious Nevada charges. The priest had been in Monterey, Calif., on Tuesday, where bank security videotape released Thursday by police showed Chaanine making a withdrawal from a Bank of America branch. A probable cause statement filed in the Phoenix court said he withdrew a large amount of money but didn't specify how much. Las Vegas police Lt. Ted Lee said it was not yet clear where Chaanine had been between Tuesday and Thursday, when police received a tip that he was in the Phoenix area. Lee declined Friday to discuss specifics of how Chaanine was tracked. "We received a tip, we acted on it and we caught him," he said. Chaanine had an initial appearance in Phoenix late Thursday. The priest on Friday refused an interview request made by The Associated Press. It remained unclear Friday whether Chaanine had a lawyer, but officials said defendants do not need lawyers for fugitive of justice hearings. Chaanine could face life in prison if he is convicted of the most serious attempted murder, kidnapping and sex assault charges, said Tom Carroll, a chief deputy Clark County district attorney. Carroll said prosecutors in Las Vegas had not been contacted by a lawyer on Chaanine's behalf. Chaanine had been on the run since the alleged assault of a 54-year-old office worker at the Our Lady of Las Vegas parish, where the priest was an administrator. The woman told Las Vegas police that she was sitting at her desk when Chaanine broke a full bottle of wine over her head, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her down a hall toward his office. She fought back, lost consciousness, and awoke with Chaanine touching her private parts, according to the police report. She continued fighting until Chaanine straddled her and grabbed her throat. She told detectives she began to pray for her life before the attack suddenly stopped. The woman told police that after the attack Chaanine muttered that he was going to kill himself. He said he would call an ambulance, and left the church, she told police. Las Vegas police released a 911 tape on Friday of a call from an unidentified passer-by who says he found an injured woman who had come out from the church office pleading for help. The woman, who says she is bleeding from a head wound, tells dispatchers she was beaten by an assailant who said he had a gun that she didn't see. "He's going to kill himself," she says when asked where the person is, and responds in a dazed way to questions about the identity of her attacker. "Do you know who did this to you?" the dispatcher asks. "I can't tell you," she says. Chaanine has been suspended with pay from his position as church administrative pastor. In a statement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas, Bishop Joseph Pepe praised authorities for finding Chaanine. "We are relieved that Father Chaanine has been found and now justice can be served through the legal process," Pepe said. "We have worked closely with the authorities and are hopeful that the information we provided proved helpful." In Las Vegas, a small group representing the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests distributed leaflets Friday morning outside the church in a residential neighborhood about 2 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip. "It was a huge step for this lady to come forward," said Paul Livingston, a San Diego resident who said he was trying to organize a SNAP chapter in southern Nevada. "We want to know if there are other witnesses," Livingston said. "We don't want people to stay silent on this one." Chaanine, a native of Lebanon, was ordained in 1996 and worked at churches in Detroit, Youngstown, Ohio, El Paso, Texas, and Wheeling, W.Va., before beginning work at Our Lady of Las Vegas in 2004, the diocese said.
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