Molestor -73
Florida Priest Held in Michigan on Sex Charges
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> May
31, 2002 05:51 PM ET
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DETROIT (Reuters) - A Catholic priest who resigned from his Florida
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church after allegations of sexual misconduct has been arrested on two
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charges of sexually abusing children, police in Michigan said on
Friday.
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> Father Robert Schaeufele, 54, was taken into
custody on Thursday
night
> in the Detroit suburb of Livonia at the
home of a relative, Det. Lt. Ben
> McDermott of the Livonia police
said.
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> Schaeufele was arrested on a felony warrant from
Pinellas Park,
> Florida, charging him with two counts of capital sexual
battery and was
> being held in the Wayne County jail in Michigan pending
extradition.
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> McDermott said the charges involve incidents
that took place between
> 1983 and 1985 when Schaeufele served at a church
in Pinellas Park.
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> Schaeufele resigned as pastor of St.
Michael the Archangel Catholic
> Church of Hudson, Florida, near Tampa in
April after what church officials
> called "an episode of misconduct"
between Schaeufele and a minor in the
> 1970s.
>
> The
St. Petersburg Times newspaper earlier this month published
> detailed
charges from six men who accused Schaeufele of abusing them when
> they
were boys during his tenure in Pinellas Park. The men, who called
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Schaeufele "Father Bob," said he fondled them before Mass and in
places
such
> as a sports club. They also said he sexually assaulted
them with objects
> such as hairbrush handles.
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> A
charge of sexually abusing a minor carries a maximum punishment of
> life
in prison in Florida. After his resignation, church officials said
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Schaeufele would never serve as a priest again.
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Allegations of sexual impropriety have been leveled at priests in
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Florida and other states in a sex scandal that has engulfed the U.S.
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Catholic Church since the child molestation conviction in January of
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Boston-area priest John Geoghan, accused of abusing 130 people over 30
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years.
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>
> --
> "The highest achievements of the human
mind are the concepts of
> "loyalty", "duty" and "honor". Whenever these
concepts fall into
direpute --
> get
> out of there fast! You may
possibly save yourself, but it is too late to
> save that society. It is
doomed."
>
