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  Priest Caught in Colombia Ordered to Stand Trial in Sex Case

Associated Press, carried in The Detroit News
March 4, 2006

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060304/LIFESTYLE04/603040322/1041

BAY CITY, Mich.-- A judge has ruled there is sufficient evidence to try a recently captured Catholic priest accused of having sexual conduct with three boys.

John Steven Rabideau, 44, has been charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

He was initially charged with six counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. Prosecutors later added four more counts, based on the testimony of the victims, who were between the ages of 6 and 14 when the alleged incidents occurred in Bay County's Williams Township in the mid-1980s.

Each second-degree charge has a maximum penalty of 15 years.

Following a one-day preliminary examination Wednesday, District Judge Scott J. Newcombe ordered Rabideau to stand trial.

Rabideau was a seminarian at the time of the alleged offenses. The youths reported the incidents in 1998, and authorities issued a warrant that year. He was arrested in Colombia earlier this year.

 
 

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