Sex Charges Dropped against Former Catholic Teacher, SNAP Responds

By David Clohessy
SNAP
November 19, 2012

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mi_sex_charges_dropped_against_former_catholic_teacher_snap_responds

A former Catholic school teacher accused of inappropriate sexual activity with children has pled guilty to domestic violence charges and had the child abuse charges against him dropped.

According to Lansing prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III, the state believed their case against Christopher deMorrow was strong enough to convict without requiring the young children to testify and potentially re-traumatize themselves. DeMorrow, who had previously taught at St. Michael’s in Grand Ledge, had been accused of inappropriately touching and licking children, and allegedly masturbated in front of them.

It's always easy to second guess police and prosecutors, and wanting abused kids to be spared the trauma of a trial is admirable. Still, we are troubled by the dropping of child sex charges against this Catholic teacher. Especially given the depraved nature of the accusations in combination with the fact that deMorrow was a teacher we would have liked to see the prosecutor’s office follow through on these charges as well.

We are glad that deMorrow was convicted and we hope that he receives a stiff sentence that includes jail time. We encourages others who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes by deMorrow to come forward and make a report to police today.