BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Banner [Baltimore MD]
March 25, 2025
By Cody Boteler and Dylan Segelbaum
A former Catholic priest facing child sexual abuse charges is eligible for home detention before trial, a Baltimore County judge ruled Tuesday.
William “Bill” Mannion Jr., who has also been an advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse, appeared by video for a bail review hearing for offenses authorities said were committed at a Catonsville church complex more than three decades ago.
During the hearing, District Judge Krystin Richardson said she was “concerned about the nature of the allegations that have been disclosed.” Still, she ruled that Mannion, 62, of Sparrows Point, is eligible for home detention through the Baltimore County Detention Center while he awaits trial.
Richardson noted during the hearing that Mannion scored low on a risk assessment tool.
No children live with him and he does not care for minors at his job as a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, the judge added. The medical center did not immediately provide a comment on Mannion.
Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Abell requested that Mannion continue to be held without bail, arguing that he used his position and authority as a priest to prey upon a child.
Detectives reviewed the alleged victim’s therapy records and also interviewed his parents, she said, who confirmed details about his attendance at St. Agnes Catholic School and change in demeanor.
“It was years of abuse that this victim had to endure,” Abell said. “This was someone who was put in a position of power.”
Meanwhile, Mannion’s attorney Charles Waechter asked the judge to release his client on home detention. Waechter described his client as a lifelong resident of Maryland who’s married with two adult children.
Hiswife, Suzanne, sat in the fourth row of the courtroom gallery during the hearing. She declined to comment.
Mannion graduated in 1980 from Cardinal Gibbons School. He later attended what’s now called Loyola University Maryland and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, where he earned a master’s degree in theology in 1988, Waechter said.
“This case, as you know, has a lot of years on it,” Waechter told the judge. “It certainly is defensible.”
The lawyer said he’s been in regular contact with the lead detective for more than one year. Waechter said his client turned himself in after learning that there was a warrant for his arrest.
Mannion has had previous run-ins with the law, according to testimony from a pretrial services officer. He received probation before judgment in 2000 for second-degree assault as well as similar disposition in 2001 for driving while intoxicated. Those outcomes are not considered convictions.
In the current case, a man, now 40, told investigators in October 2023 that Mannion abused him from 1991 through 1994, Baltimore County Police reported.
Police say the abuse took place in the 600 block of St. Agnes Lane where St. Agnes Catholic School sits adjacent to St. Agnes Church.
He told detectives he was an altar server in the church. He reported that the abuse was occasional starting in second grade, but became more frequent into the fourth grade, police wrote in documents.
The incidents increased in frequency and also became more violent, the man told police. He alleged Mannion often had wine on his breath during the incidents, according to police documents.
Since the charges were filed against Mannion on March 20, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has not received any additional reports of alleged abuse by him or others at St. Agnes, according to a spokesperson.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore confirmed Mannion started at St. Agnes in 1994 and left the priesthood — and St. Agnes — in 1998.
Mannion formally requested to be laicized, or removed from the church as a priest, in 2001, a process that was completed in 2004, according to church officials. A spokesperson for the archdiocese did not say why he left, but added it was not related to the abuse allegations.
Baltimore County Police Department spokesperson Joy Lepola-Stewart said the department would be unable to speak about the case, calling it an open investigation.
The length of an investigation like this “can vary,” she wrote in an email, saying that witnesses need to be interviewed and “locating their whereabouts may take time.” She also said that documentation related to the allegations needs to be produced.
“Afterward, the case will be turned over to the State’s Attorney’s Office for review,” she said.
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger declined to comment.
David Lorenz, Maryland director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in an email his heart goes out to the man who accused Mannion.
“It takes victims many decades to come forward and this victim found strength at a relatively young age. I applaud them,” Lorenz wrote, calling on the church to assist police in the Mannion case “in every way possible.”
Separately, Mannion played a key role in bringing notorious child rapist John Merzbacher to justice.
In recent years, Mannion spoke to investigators with the Maryland Attorney General’s Office for their sweeping investigation into the history of abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which was released in 2023.
Mannion “described Merzbacher’s outrageous and inappropriate behavior,” according to the report.
The report noted that Mannion remembered Merzbacher sending the victim into the cloakroom and being alone in there with her.
“In 1993, he saw the victim at a wake, and asked her if she was a victim of Merzbacher and she said yes,” the report said.
According to the report, Mannion reported the abuse to the Archdiocese.
Baltimore Banner reporters Jessica Calefati, Darreonna Davis and Justin Fenton contributed to this report.