MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
Posted: 06/10/2013
A Blue Earth priest who organizes support for an orphanage in his native India has been charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct of an 11-year-old girl, according to the Faribault County attorney’s office.
Leo Charles Koppala, 47, of the Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Blue Earth was taken into custody by Blue Earth city police about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, the Faribault County jail record said.
Koppala had been invited to dinner at the home of a relative of the girl Friday evening, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Faribault County District Court.
The adult relative took a phone call during the evening. Koppala went down in the basement where the girl was watching TV, and told her he was glad to have gotten away from the relative, the complaint said.
He then pulled the girl up from where she had been sitting, “kissed (her) on the cheek and lips … put one hand on her lower back and the other on her chest,” the complaint said. The girl told police Koppala moved his hand around, fondling her breasts, according to the complaint.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.