$5M Bond for Ex-buddhist Priest Charged with Fathering Child with Teen

WLS
July 20, 2012

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Camnong Bual Ubol /photo from Cook County Sheriff's office

A former Buddhist priest was ordered held on $5 million bond Friday, charged with fathering a child with a 15-year-old girl while he belonged to a west suburban temple.

Camnong Boa-Ubol, 62, was charged with one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault and Cook County Judge Peter Felice ordered him held on $5 million Friday, Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin said.

Boa-Ubol was a Buddhist priest who lived and worked at the Wat Dhammaram Temple in Stickney Township when he fathered the child, according to a May 2012 release from the Cook County Sheriff's office.

In a 2009 lawsuit, the woman and her daughter claimed Boa-Ubol sexually assaulted and battered her at the temple between July 1998 and May 1999.

The suit claims the woman was a temple worker and potential member when Boa-Ubol approached her dressed in the orange robe associated with the temple. A picture of Boa-Ubol was hanging on the wall and she came to the temple multiple times for guidance, instruction and compensation for clean-up duties, the suit said.

After a 2010 paternity test, it was discovered Boa-Ubol was the father, but the results were not immediately given to police, the release said. Barbara Blaine of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests contacted the sheriff's office about the allegations in October 2011.

"We're grateful that this credibly accused child molester is in custody," Blaine said in a statement, adding Ubol raped the girl at a monastery. "It's crucial that law enforcement aggressively pursue likely sex offenders who flee to other cities, states or countries."

Ubol's last known address was at the Wat Buddhavipassana Temple in Long Beach, Calif., but investigators learned he had been removed from that temple. He was arrested in May in Anchorage, Alaska, where he was working as a dishwasher, police said.

Ubol was born in Thailand, but is a U.S. citizen who has been a Buddhist priest since 1995.

He will next appear in court Aug. 13 in Bridgeview.

The Sun-Times Media Wire Contributed To This Report