Bond Denied for Convicted Pedophile Daniel Mccormack

CBS Chicago
May 22, 2014

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/05/22/bond-denied-for-convicted-pedophile-daniel-mccormack/

Daniel McCormack (Credit: Cook County Sheriff)

A judge denied bond to a pedophile ex-priest who is now facing additional sexual abuse charges.

Daniel McCormack was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with criminal sexual abuse.

He appeared in bond court on Thursday.

McCormack has been held in a state facility after doing time in connection with incidents that happened when he led two Chicago churches.

In 2007, McCormack was removed from the priesthood and pleaded guilty to abusing five children while he was a priest at St. Agatha’s parish.

In this latest case, the alleged victim was 10 and also a parishioner at St. Agatha in the 3100 block of West Douglas.

The boy was participating in an after-school program at the church and the alleged abuse happened between September 2005 and December 2005. The alleged victim disclosed the abuse in 2013.

One incident happened after McCormack took the boy to a White Sox game. He allegedly took the boy to his home after the game and fondled him, prosecutors said.

Another time, McCormack invited the boy to his room in the rectory and again fondled him.

McCormack’s attorney Daniel Coyne said the former priest is currently receiving treatment and said he suffers a “mental disorder” and is a “sexually violent person.”

While Cook County Judge James brown denied bond for McCormack, the judge said he would be able to stay at the state treatment center and be transported to the courthouse for future hearings.

In recent days, Chicago Police arrested McCormack at the Department of Human Services treatment facility in Rushville—about 230 miles southwest of Chicago.

McCormack had been serving his sentence at the Western Illinois Correctional Center in Mount Sterling, Ill., until he was paroled to the Rushville facility in 2009.

A source told the Sun-Times Media Wire, there is an ongoing effort to have McCormack committed indefinitely to state custody under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act. The next hearing on the procedure is June 12.

Barbara Blaine, founder and president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a statment Wednesday evening: “We are grateful for the victim and police who are working to get Fr. Daniel McCormack locked up again. He’s one of Illinois’ most egregious predator priests.”