UPDATE: No bail for Westtown priest

By Michael P. Rellahan
Daily Local News
March 4, 2015

http://www.dailylocal.com/general-news/20150304/update-no-bail-for-westtown-priest

Mark Haynes

Philadelphia >> A federal judge on Wednesday agreed with the U.S. District Attorney’s office that a priest who had been assigned to parishes across the Delaware Valley should be held without bail pending a future trial on child pornography cases.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel granted the government’s motion to hold defendant Mark Haynes in detention pending his trial. The prosecution had alleged that Haynes, even after his arrest in October on charges that he possessed and distributed child pornography, continued to seek out to connect with young girls.

The priest, who has been formally removed from his duties, had also molested at least three minor victims while he served as their pastor, the government claims.

Stengel’s decision came one day after a federal magistrate judge had denied the government’s request, and granted Haynes release on $5,000 bail, with a myriad of conditions including regular reporting to a federal detention agency.

In a motion filed Tuesday for the pre-trial detention of Mark Haynes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella wrote that investigators had interviewed three people who came forward to say that Haynes had sexually abused them when he was their parish priest and they were minors.

Haynes is alleged to have molested the children, whose identities or the places they lived were not provided, “with acts of sexual touching, masturbation, and forced oral sex,” according to Rotella’s motion. In one instance, Haynes is alleged to have taken confession from one young girl, who told him that she had engaged in oral sex with a teenage boy. Haynes then had the girl perform that same act on him, the motion states.

In addition, the motion relates that Haynes had hidden the existence of a laptop computer from law enforcement investigators, and then gotten a friend to retrieve it for him when he was barred from his former residence at Ss. Simon and Judge, in Westtown. Police have not recovered the laptop. Investigators found that Haynes stored child pornography and evidence of his interactions with teenage girls on other computers.

“The defendant is a danger to any child in the community,” Rotella wrote in her motion, filed with U.S. Magisterial Court Judge Linda K. Caracappa. “The charges in this federal complaint arose out of criminal acts that Haynes committed from the confines of his own residence, demonstrating that there are no set of conditions that could ensure the safety of the community.”

Haynes faces federal charges of enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. The investigation began when county detectives received a tip about pornographic images that were being posted from an Instagram account in the name of “Katie.” They tracked that to a computer that was registered to a Simon and Jude email account, officials said.

When Haynes was confronted by county detectives in October, he confessed to having child pornography on his computer, and of sending out images to others. He also stated that he had in early 2010 communicated with a young girl by using the name “Katie Caponetti,” and that he and the girl discussed sexual matters over the Internet.

FBI Special Agent Jennifer Morrow, writing in her arrest warrant signed Friday, said that investigators had been able to track down the girl that Haynes had been communicating with as “Katie.”

The girl said that when she was 13, she began emailing with someone she thought was a 16-year-old girl. They discussed sex, and at one point the other girl — actually Haynes — sent her a video that included a naked teenage girl. Investigators were able to find images and videos on Haynes’ computers that had been sent to the girl, whose identity was not revealed in the arrest warrant.

Until his arrest last year, Haynes had served as Simon and Jude’s Parochial Vicar for about one year after having served parishes in Chester, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties. He was ordained in 1985. He was removed from his position at Simon and Jude after his arrest and placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Haynes’ case in Common Pleas Court in West Chester has been continued until the federal charges against him are resolved.