DENVER (CO)
Aspen Daily News [Aspen CO]
April 27, 2023
By Rick Carroll
The 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office will not prosecute a former St. Mary Catholic Church priest accused of sexually assaulting an altar boy multiple times over a four-year period, following an investigation that didn’t yield sufficient evidence to file criminal charges, the Aspen Police Department said Wednesday.
“The investigation was conducted with the assistance of the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. On review with the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Aspen police closed the case as unfounded. No charges will be filed,” an APD news release states.
The investigation into Father Michael O’Brien began in September 2021 in response to a former altar boy’s accusations that the priest sexually assaulted him in a series of incidents from 2004 to 2008, the release says.
“We understand the significant impact this case had on (the reporting person), Father O’Brien, St. Mary’s and our community,” Detective Sgt. Rick Magnuson said in a prepared statement. “We appreciate the patience that was given as investigators pursued this case; we are confident that we have reached the proper conclusion.”
The APD interviewed more than 80 witnesses and communicated with more than 25 law-enforcement agencies as part of the probe, the release said.
“In total, Aspen police, led by Detective Jeremy Johnson, invested more than 500 hours into this case in an attempt to find the truth,” the statement said.
O’Brien, however, remains a defendant in a civil case in Denver County District Court concerning similar allegations made by the former altar boy. The lawsuit against O’Brien, who was a priest at St. Mary Catholic Church from 2002 until 2011, was filed in December 2021.
O’Brien, who was ordained in July 2000, is currently on leave of absence, according to the Archdiocese of Denver.
An amended lawsuit introduced Feb. 14 claimed the plaintiff, starting when he was 7 years old, “was sexually abused by O’Brien at St. Mary’s on approximately 300 occasions.”
A five-day civil jury trial is scheduled for the last week of June, according to court documents.
“We are aware of the developments regarding the conclusion of the criminal investigation,” said an email from Paige Singleton. Singleton and Scott J. Eldredge of the Englewood firm Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine are representing plaintiff Keegan Callahan in his civil suit against O’Brien. “However, the truth-seeking process is not over. A trial is a search for the truth. Mr. Callahan looks forward to having his day in court.”
Callahan, 25, began a 14-year prison sentence in September 2019 following his guilty pleas in Pitkin County District Court to felony charges of sexual exploitation of a child and sexual assault. He also pleaded guilty to lesser misdemeanor counts of unlawful sexual contact, and is incarcerated at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Ordway, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections website.
Pitkin County sheriff’s deputies arrested Callahan and accomplice Henry Henley, now 22 years old and serving time in Pueblo’s youthful offender system, in October 2018 on accusations that they violently raped a 16-year-old girl, and also assaulted other teenage girls.
O’Brien’s repeated abuse of Callahan shaped his views on violent behavior, Callahan’s lawsuit against the priest said. “The egregious acts of sexual, physical, mental, and emotional abuse Plaintiff suffered resulted in the loss of his innocence; the loss of his faith in any church or institution that he once had; the developed false belief that rape and torture is normal; and severe emotional, physical, and mental anguish, all of which has affected him and will continue to affect him throughout the remainder of his life.”
O’Brien has denied the allegations through pleadings from defense lawyer Kevin McGreevy of the Denver firm Ridley, McGreevy & Winocur.
“Mr. Callahan chose to file his civil suit in Denver, seeking money, predicated on the same allegations that the Aspen Police Department determined were unfounded,” McGreevy said in an email.
McGreevey also provided the Aspen Daily News with the following statement: “Today the Aspen Police Department and Aspen District Attorney’s Office announced that the allegations against Fr. Michael O’Brien are unfounded. We would like to thank the Aspen Police Department, specifically Detective Jeremy Johnson and Sgt. Rick Magnuson, for their hard work on this investigation. We also thank the District Attorney’s Office and Don Nottingham for his work on this case. These allegations were thoroughly investigated — over 18 months and nearly 80 people were interviewed — which led to the conclusion that the allegations by Keegan Callahan were unfounded.
“Fr. O’Brien cooperated fully with the investigation, provided all the information he was asked for, passed a polygraph, and participated in a four-hour police interview, all to make sure law enforcement had what it needed to determine the truth. This process has taken a significant toll on Fr. O’Brien. Today we are grateful at being one step closer to clearing his good name.”
Callahan’s legal team also is appealing a judge’s dismissal of St. Mary Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Denver from the lawsuit. The two organizations were added as defendants, under the Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act, in the lawsuit against O’Brien in April 2022.
A Denver District Court judge dropped the church and archdiocese from the suit in July 2022, issuing a written ruling that stated Callahan’s complaint “did not assert facts that show the Archdiocese or St. Mary’s had actual knowledge of the ongoing abuse” against Callahan. The ruling also cited the statute of limitations as a reason for the dismissal.
Callahan’s suit claimed “Archdiocese and St. Mary’s both have a well-known and well- documented reputation of knowingly hiring, and continuing to employ, pedophiles and taking extreme measures to conceal all past and present reports of sexual and physical abuse occurring, or having had occurred, within the clergy.”
O’Brien took a six-month sabbatical from St. Mary in 2011 for “health issues,” as stated to his congregation, and was transferred to St. Peter Catholic Church in Crook, and later to St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Julesburg, according to the suit.
The current claims against O’Brien are for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress and sexual assault.