Catholic Priest Streamed Web Cam Video of Naked Boy: Prosecutor

By Lorraine Swanson
Patch
September 21, 2016

http://patch.com/illinois/chicago/catholic-priest-streamed-web-cam-video-naked-boy-prosecutor


New details emerged during a bond court hearing for a once prominent Chicago Catholic priest after a year-long investigation determined that his electronic devices possibly contained images of minors engaging in sex acts, prosecutors said Wednesday in court.

Octavio Munoz-Capetillo, 40, appeared before Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos-Ciesel, on a felony charge of possession of child pornography. Munoz was suspended from the priesthood last year while the investigation was pending.

An investigation into the priest’s online activities was triggered by Archdiocese of Chicago officials, who notified police following an internal investigation when an employee reported seeing a web cam streaming child pornography on a computer owned by Munoz in July 2015, prosecutors said.

>>>Suspended Chicago Priest Arrested on Child Porn Charges: Cops

Between 2009 and 2015, Munoz was the director of Casa Jesus, a program of the Archdiocese that helped prepare Latin American men considering vocations in the Catholic priesthood for seminary. While holding the position of rector, Munoz was provided with his own apartment.

In June 2015, Munoz was transferred to St. Pancratius, 4025 S. Sacramento Ave, in Brighton Park, before the discovery of the sexual material and images on his computer, according to the Archdiocese.

During the first week of July -- around July 7, 2015 -- an Archdiocese employee was showing the new rector around the apartment. Munoz was to have vacated the premises by the end of June, but boxes of his belongings were still piled up around the apartment, the prosecutor said.

The employee also observed a recliner chair with a TV tray, on which was an open black Sony laptop, powered on, and still running, the prosecutor said. The employee saw a moving image on the screen that appeared to be running from a web cam.

The prosecutor described the image as a young boy who had no public hair masturbating. Munoz was not in the apartment at the time. Both the employee and new rector left the apartment.

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Believing that the new rector, who was to meet with Munoz, would bring up the issue, the employee did not immediately contact Archdiocese officials, the prosecutor said. A week later, after learning that no report had been made, the employee contacted the case manager at the Archdiocese Office for the Protection of Children and Youth. By then, the apartment had been cleaned out and was receiving a fresh coat of paint.