West Side Cleveland Priest Pleads Guilty to Solicitation; Sentenced to Early Intervention Program

By James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer
September 5, 2014

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2014/09/west_side_cleveland_priest_ple.html

The Rev. James McGonegal pleaded guilty today in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to charges he solicited sex from an undercover ranger at Edgewater Park without informing him he was HIV positive.

A West Side priest pleaded guilty this morning to soliciting sex from an undercover ranger at Edgewater Park last October while failing to divulge he was carrying the AIDS virus.

Under provisions of a plea bargain reached with prosecutors, the Rev. James McGonegal, 69, the former pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch Church, will enter an early intervention program.

The agreement allows McGonegal to avoid a felony conviction if he successfully completes the program. At that point, the case would be dismissed and his record expunged.

"We're glad that we have a resolution to this matter," said defense attorney Henry Hilow. "Father has lived an exemplary life, with the exception of this incident, and we're glad that this chapter of his life is concluded."

McGonegal declined to comment.

An additional provision of the plea deal will require McGonegal to stay out of all of the Cleveland Metroparks. He also must perform 50 hours of community service and continue out-patient treatment begun in January when he entered a six-month program at a residential facility for priests in Silver Spring, Md.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Stuart Friedman encouraged McGonegal to successfully complete his diversion program, noting that if he fails to do so he faces from nine to 36 months in prison.

The judge restated his dissatisfaction with the 1996 state law that elevated a misdemeanor solicitation charge to a felony in cases where the solicitor was HIV positive and failed to inform his partner of this.

"I continue to have questions about the constitutionality and reasonableness of this statute," Friedman said, describing the law as "at best an overreaction, and at worst a hysterical reaction" to the AIDS crisis nearly 20 years ago.

Friedman previously acknowledged that medical advancements in HIV treatment since the law was passed have put the likelihood of infecting a partner at less than 1 percent.

Ohio is one of 34 states that have similar laws making solicitation by HIV-infected people a felony.

Friedman released a written opinion in which he found in favor of the prosecution's position that the law used to charge the priest was valid, and he rejected Hilow's request for dismissal based on the constitutionality of the law.