DA says ex-priests won’t face charges

AUGUSTA – No criminal charges are likely to result from prosecutors’ review of allegations of sexual abuse against former priests in Kennebec and Somerset counties, District Attorney David W. Crook said Thursday.

Maine’s other district attorneys seem to be coming to the same conclusion that none of the 33 complaints of sex abuse forwarded to the state by the Roman Catholic Diocese in Portland are likely to result in criminal charges, Crook said.

“Quite bluntly, out of all the complaints, none appear to be prosecutable. This was not of Massachusetts proportions at all. I think this is probably the opinion all the district attorneys have reached,” Crook told the Kennebec Journal.

In May, Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson reviewed records from the Diocese of Portland and announced that allegations had been made against 51 Catholic clerics in Maine. Thirty-three of those were still alive, but none were still active in the ministry.

State officials completed their review and distributed the files to local prosecutors to decide whether to file charges. Crook said he received either seven or eight complaints.

Charges are not likely in any of the complaints for a number of reasons, he said. Some of the complaints do not involve a crime and some allege sexual misconduct that may be unethical and even immoral, but not illegal, he said.

Other complaints refer to events that occurred so long ago that the statute of limitations has expired. Still others were anonymous complaints too vague to indicate whether crimes occurred, or if they did, who committed them.