ILLINOIS
WLS
[with video]
By Chuck Goudie and Ross Weidner, Barb Markoff, Christine Tressel
CHICAGO (WLS) — The ABC7 I-Team has new details on how the Chicago Archdiocese handled the investigation of a priest in a child pornography case.
On the surface, this child porn scandal involves Rev. Octavio Munoz who once ran the crown jewel of the church’s Hispanic priest outreach program, Casa Jesus.
Munoz was arrested in Maryland where he was undergoing church-sponsored treatment and appeared in Cook County court today on a child porn charge.
Court records raise disturbing questions about who reported the child pornography and how quickly law enforcement officials were informed.
Munoz, 40, was charged Wednesday with possession of child pornography.
Last summer, Archbishop Blase Cupich tapped Rev. Kevin Hays to replace Munoz.
On July 7, 2015 Hays and a church employee went to Casa Jesus to inspect Hays’ new living quarters.
According a legal proffer filed Wednesday by Cook County prosecutors, when Hays and the church employee walked into Munoz’s former apartment there was “a black Sony laptop … there was displayed a moving image on the screen that appeared to be running from a web cam. The image was of a young boy (engaged in a sexual act.)”
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