Disgraced priest disputes law firm's report, seeks certain rights from OKC Archdiocese, by Carla Hinton And Randy Ellis, Oklahoman (March 16, 2020)

Disgraced priest disputes law firm's report, seeks certain rights from OKC Archdiocese

A retired Catholic clergyman named in a list of predatory priests wants to retain the right to carry out priestly functions like officiating at weddings and funerals.

Enid attorney Stephen Jones said he will appeal to Rome on behalf of the Rev. James Mickus if the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City does not restore the retired priest's "priestly faculties."

Jones' disagreement with the archdiocese stems from allegations against Mickus that were included in a report compiled by Oklahoma City-based McAfee & Taft. The law firm was hired by the archdiocese to investigate and report on its findings concerning priests with substantiated allegations of sex abuse against a minor.

The 77-page report released in October 2019 included an allegation that Mickus, 75, had sexually abused a minor while serving as an archdiocese priest at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid.

Jones said Mickus acknowledges having a "consensual romantic relationship" with the person who made the allegation, but contends the man was an adult at the time.

Jones said the accuser's statements about the encounter were rife with inconsistencies about the year and place where it occurred. Mickus contends the encounter actually occurred in 1984, when the accuser would have been about 21.

"To be clear, while a priest's romantic relationship may be wrong in the eyes of the Church, it is not a crime in any sense of the word," Jones stated in a 33-page document that was recently submitted to the archdiocese. "For most people, this is a normal event in one's life. In the life of a priest, however, such a relationship is forbidden and can be the cause of great personal guilt and shame. For many reasons, this relationship no longer exists, and has not for many years."

"We simply want to refute the allegations made in the McAfee & Taft report," Jones said.

He said Mickus was denied due process "both in his abrupt suspension in 2018 and the harm to his reputation caused by the report's release."

"In other words, Father Mickus was presumed guilty, endangering his reputation contrary to the rules of the Roman Catholic Church," Jones said.

However, the Oklahoma City archdiocese defended the report, which was praised by some victims' advocacy groups for being comprehensive, particularly as compared with similar reports released by other dioceses around the country.

"The report on child sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City since 1960 was thorough and provided much-needed transparency for our parishioners and the community at-large who demand and deserve safe environments for their children," Diane Clay, the archdiocese's communications director, said in a statement.

"Priests found to have a substantiated allegation of abuse of a minor will be suspended during the investigative and administrative process. The accused priest has a right to appeal to Rome at any time during the process.”Meanwhile, Jones said Mickus is not seeking any monetary damages. Jones said Mickus is receiving his retirement benefits and he is relying on the integrity of the archbishop and the archdiocese to see that those continue.

However, he said the priest does want Coakley to lift the suspension of his priestly faculties.

Mickus was first suspended in June 2002 by then-Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran. The suspension came after the priest's accuser came forward. Beltran allowed Mickus to return to the ministry in March 2003 after an investigation into the allegations was conducted by the archdiocese.

Coakley suspended Mickus from the ministry again in November 2018, while McAfee & Taft was re-investigating the allegation against him. At the time that Coakley removed Mickus from ministry, Mickus had been serving as a priest at Our Lady of Sorrows in Chandler and St. Louis Catholic Church in Stroud.

The priest served in other churches as well over his 47-year career, including St. Francis Xavier (Enid), St. Joseph (Bison), St. Philip Neri (Midwest City), St. Mary (Ponca City), Sacred Heart (Mangum), St. Joseph (Norman), Christ the King (Oklahoma City) and St. Patrick (Oklahoma City).

In his documents titled "Refutation of Father James Mickus," Jones criticized McAfee & Taft's report, which identified priests, including Mickus, as having substantiated allegations of sex abuse of a minor. Those individuals were placed on a list made public by the archdiocese.

The report is "replete with inaccuracies, omissions, and equivocations of the truth regarding the allegation aimed at Father James Mickus," Jones wrote.

He described Mickus' accuser as a "four-time convicted felon who, represented by counsel, unsuccessfully sued Fr. Mickus and the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City."

Jones also questioned the authority of the archdiocese and the law firm to investigate the allegation against Mickus.

"The Catholic Church is not a law enforcement agency designed to administer criminal justice, nor does it provide for a system of determining guilt or innocence by an objective standard," Jones wrote.

"Similarly, law firms such as McAfee & Taft fail to qualify as law enforcement agencies, nor are they bound by the procedures or standards that govern the modern criminal justice system. ... The Report briefly notes 'the right of the accused not to be convicted in the court of public opinion without due process and without just cause,' yet that is precisely the Report's consequence."

Jones contends the documents he recently submitted to the archdiocese represented a more "complete narrative so that the community may judge for itself the credibility of Father Mickus’ accuser, as well as the merit of reopening an investigation that had been closed for almost 17 years." "The truth today is the same as it was in 2002 — Father Mickus never engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor," Jones wrote.