MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald
By Jonathan Streetman
CROOKSTON—SNAP, a support group for victims of abuse, is making its presence known outside area churches in an effort to stop the re-assignment of a former Minnesota priest.
The Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul served as a priest in the Crookston diocese in 2004 and 2005. During that time, Jeyapaul was accused of sexually abusing two girls in the congregation.
Jeyapaul, who had since returned to his home country of India, was arrested in 2012 and eventually extradited from India back to the United States to face charges. While one set of charges was dropped, Jeyapaul was convicted in Roseau County in June 2015 of sexually abusing a 16-year-old Minnesota girl and sentenced to one year and one day behind bars—equivalent to time served during the proceedings—and immediately deported back to India.
Now Jeyapaul could be re-assigned to the clergy in India with the recent lifting of his suspension by the Vatican, less than a year after his conviction.
In response, SNAP, or Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, members are handing out leaflets and actively seeking out other individuals who may have been abused by Jeyapaul during his time in Crookston. SNAP members Megan Peterson and Barbara Dorris handed out the fliers Sunday morning just outside the parking lot of the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Crookston.
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