Catholic priest faces sentencing for molesting sleeping airline passenger

By Debbie L. Sklar
My News LA
August 24, 2015

http://mynewsla.com/crime/2015/08/24/catholic-priest-faces-sentencing-for-molesting-sleeping-airline-passenger/

A Catholic priest who sexually assaulted a sleeping woman aboard a cross-country flight to Los Angeles faces up to two years in federal prison when he is sentenced Monday.

Marcelo De Jesumaria, who previously served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, was convicted in May of abusive sexual contact on the US Airways flight from Philadelphia last summer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

According to court papers, a female passenger, identified only as “BD,” woke up during the August 2014 flight to find the priest’s “hands on her breast, groin, and buttocks.”

De Jesumaria was removed from the ministry last November when the allegations against him surfaced.

FBI agents met De Jesumaria at the gate, when the plane landed, and he was indicted in Los Angeles federal court last October.