Priest, Extradited from India, Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Girl

India West
June 2, 2015

http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/priest-extradited-from-india-pleads-guilty-to-assaulting-girl/article_b9cc12fa-0a1c-11e5-9df3-7320ff196482.html

Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, a Catholic priest from India, pleaded guilty May 22 to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl while serving in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Crookston in northwestern Minnesota.

According to the Pioneer Press, the guilty plea comes nearly ten years after the incident occurred at his home in Greenbush, Minn.

This image taken from TV shows the Rev. Jeyapaul speaking to a journalist in India in 2010. (AP photo)

Jeyapaul, 60, was extradited from India to the U.S. in November to face criminal charges brought in two different cases in Minnesota 9th District Court in Roseau, Minn., both alleging sexual abuse by Jeyapaul of underage female parishioners.

He had left the U.S. in September 2005 before criminal charges were filed against him and was first arrested in March 2012 in India.

Jeyapaul pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony, in one of the two cases. The other case, in which he is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, is still pending.

Jeyapaul will be sentenced in the one case June 15.