Twice-accused Priest Heads toward Trial

SNAP
July 8, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mo_new_ruling_twice_accused_priest_heads_toward_trial

Pedophile priest is subject of hearing

He's been arrested twice & faces a civil suit

Cleric has moved with and lived with archbishop

On the same day that St. Louis Catholic officials dodged a potentially embarrassing civil child sex abuse trial, a judge green-lighted a similar trial against a different priest.

Twice in recent years Fr. Joseph Jiang has been arrested on child sex charges – first in Lincoln County in 2012 and then in St. Louis city in April 2014. Now, it looks like he'll face a civil trial.

[bishop-accountability.org]

[bishop-accountability.org]

Yesterday, according to CaseNET, a Lincoln County judge let a civil lawsuit against Fr. Jiang and his church supervisors move forward. Fr. Jiang and St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson had sought to have the case dismissed.

“We're grateful Carlson lost and won't be able to hide behind legal technicalities,” said Barbara Dorris of SNAP. “We look forward to him trying to explain, under oath, the remarkably selfish and hurtful decisions he repeatedly made with Fr. Jiang.”

“Now, Carlson will have to explain why he tried to get his hands on a $20,000 check Fr. Jiang gave this victim's family to try and silence them,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “And hopefully he'll have to explain why he's letting a pedophile priest with pending criminal and civil charges live basically unsupervised near one of his victims.”

Fr. Jiang, free on $150,000 bond, now lives at the Dominican Priory on Lafayette near Grand, just six minutes away from the Cathedral parish, where he allegedly met and hurt both the Lincoln County girl and the St. Louis City boy.

[snapnetwork.org]

“This is a recipe for disaster. Carlson needs to put Fr. Jiang in a remote, secure and independent treatment center far away where he'll have no access to kids,” said Dorris. “It's possible that Fr. Jiang sexually assaulted this boy while he was living at this priory.”

Fr. Jiang is an archdiocesan priest who is reportedly very close to Carlson, having moved with Carlson several times as the archbishop was promoted.

One of Fr. Jiang's victims is represented by attorneys Ken Chackes and Nicole Gorovsky.