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  Defrocked Priest Won't Be Extradited to Arizonafor Now

By Azam Ahmed
Chicago Tribune
May 13, 2008

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-mcguire-priest-extradite-web-may14,0,3335849.story

A former Jesuit priest accused of molesting two brothers in Arizona will not be extradited from Cook County until he faces similar charges in federal court here, a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday.

At his extradition hearing, Donald McGuire—who was defrocked earlier this year—was told that although Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has signed a warrant for the former priest's arrest, he will remain in custody here until pending federal charges in Illinois are dealt with.

McGuire, 77, had been scheduled to appear last month for his extradition hearing, but complained of chest pains and was rushed to Mercy Hospital. On Tuesday, he received the Arizona warrant in a wheelchair before being taken back into custody.

McGuire, who already has been sentenced to 7 years for child molestation in Wisconsin, has been living at his home in Oak Lawn while appealing a 2006 conviction. The Arizona sexual abuse charges are the result of a six-month investigation launched by the Maricopa County state's attorney's office after officials were contacted by two brothers.

Last week's indictment alleged the brothers were abused between 1998 and 2002 during visits McGuire made to the Phoenix area. They were 9 and 12 when the abuse is alleged to have begun.

Law enforcement interest in McGuire first came after a 2003 civil lawsuit filed in Chicago, which accused him of abusing two boys in the 1960s in Wilmette. By 2003, the Illinois statute of limitations had run out, so investigators charged McGuire in Wisconsin, where he allegedly molested the boys on trips to Lake Geneva and where there is no statute of limitations applied to allegations made by out-of-state residents.

In 2007, after another civil suit was filed in Cook County, federal authorities charged McGuire with traveling to Switzerland and Austria in 2000 to engage in sexual misconduct with a minor. If convicted on the federal charges, McGuire could face up to 15 years in prison.

As a former spiritual director for Mother Teresa, McGuire offered Roman Catholic retreats around the globe. An affidavit included in the federal indictment cited letters from Jesuit officials in the early 1990s repeatedly instructing McGuire, who was defrocked in February, to discontinue overnight trips with minors.

Contact: aahmed@tribune.com

 
 

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