Attorney General Dana Nessel's office investigated sexual abuse allegations against roughly 44 priests as part of its investigation into the Diocese of Marquette's handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations, according to the first of seven reports released by Nessel's office Thursday.
Of the 44 priests accused in the Marquette diocese, 32 were dead by the time Nessel's office received the complaint and other cases were barred from prosecution by a statute of limitations law that requires charges to be issued within a certain time period after an alleged crime, the 154-page report said.
Two of the 44 accused priests have been charged by the attorney general's office and a third was charged in 2021 by the Chippewa County prosecutor. Nessel's charges have resulted in one conviction stemming from the Marquette diocese, while the office is working to extradite a priest in the second case from India.
The report does not opine on the credibility of the claims against the 44 priests, outside of those listed as already having been charged, convicted or removed from ministry based on the claims. Instead, Nessel's office noted the information was being released "as an acknowledgment to the victims of these alleged crimes and as a public accounting of the resources allocated to the Department of Attorney General to investigate and prosecute clergy abuse."
"We must break down the walls of silence that so often surround sexual assault and abuse," Nessel said in a statement. "In the end, we hope this investigation provides a voice to those who have suffered in silence for so long and shines a light on those alleged offenders who have escaped punishment for their crimes by hiding in shadows."
The Diocese of Marquette, which Nessel's office said cooperated in the investigation, called the report in a press conference Thursday "sobering and disturbing," thanked those who came forward and welcomed others wishing to make a report.
"Our work to stamp out this great evil must continue," Marquette Bishop John Doerfler said. "On behalf of the church, I offer a sincere apology to anyone who has been abused by clergy in the Catholic Church. You are and should have been our priority."
Doerfler said no priest or deacon is active in ministry in the diocese if they have a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse.
Nessel's office plans to release a report on each diocese's handling of clergy sexual abuse complaints in the coming months as it works to complete a more than 4-year investigation that's resulted in sexual abuse charges against 11 priests. Roughly 100 investigations still are ongoing, the report said, and seven of the 11 charged have been convicted.
The investigation into clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Michigan initiated under Republican former Attorney General Bill Schuette launched Sept. 21, 2018.
On Oct. 3, 2018, 42 law enforcement officers and 15 special agents conducted simultaneous raids of Michigan's seven dioceses, where they seized roughly 220 boxes of 1.5 million paper documents as well as roughly 2.5 million electronic documents. A tipline also was set up that has resulted in 1,015 tips so far.
Nessel's office said in the report that Michigan's seven dioceses agreed to forward all sexual abuse complaints to the attorney general's office and delay their own internal investigations while the criminal investigations were ongoing. Dioceses have referred 184 cases to Nessel's office from the start of the investigation, according to the report.
"All seven Dioceses have agreed to cooperate with the investigation and from all accounts are abiding by that agreement," the report said.
Roughly 861,000 of the electronic documents and 74,000 of the paper documents seized stemmed from the Diocese of Marquette, according to the report.
Of the 44 priests accused in the Marquette diocese, 38 were employed or incardinated by the diocese since 1950 and 32 were dead by the time Nessel's office received the complaint. The majority of allegations involved boys and girls under the ages of 16 and 18, but complaints against five priests involved adults. Some of those claims involving adults included allegations of potential abuses of authority that led to attempts or instances of sexual misconduct, the report said.
Three of the 44 priests listed in the report have already been convicted, with the Rev. Terrence Healy being convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a minor in 1987, Rev. Norbert LaCrosse convicted of criminal sexual conduct involving a minor in 1991 and Rev. Gary Jacobs convicted of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving five victims in the 1980s. Jacobs' conviction this year stemmed from charges brought by Nessel's office.
Nessel's office also charged Rev. Roy Joseph in 2019 with first-degree criminal sexual conduct but has been unable so far to extradite him from India.
The Chippewa County prosecutor in 2021 brought charges including child porn possession and accosting a child for immoral purposes against Rev. Aaron Nowick, who had been removed from ministry by the diocese two years earlier, the report said.
In almost all of the other cases, either the priest had died or the statute of limitations had run, the report said.
"Few of the allegations were examined by law enforcement officials during the time in which the statute of limitations would have allowed for a charge if warranted," the report said. "Also, in the vast majority of the cases, the allegations were brought to diocesan officials only after the statute of limitations had run or after the priest had died."
The diocese on Thursday noted a senior priest in active ministry is among the 44 on the attorney general's list against whom a sexual abuse allegation was made, but the diocese said its investigation found the allegation wasn't credible. Nessel's report does not make a conclusion on the allegation's credibility, but defers to information from the diocese's 2018 investigation.
Of the 44 cases listed, the diocese had previously substantiated claims of abuse against eight and listed 11 others as having been credibly accused.
The diocese said it considers a claim substantiated when there's been a trial and conviction. A claim is considered "credible" if the allegation made appears to be true but a trial cannot or has not yet been held.
Those listed as having a substantiated claim in diocesan records include Nowicki, Healy, Jacobs, Rev. Joseph D. Carne, Rev. Richard Craig, Rev. James Menapace and non-diocesan priests Rev. Juvenal Pfalzer and Rev. Roman Pfalzer.
The list of credibly accused priests maintained by the diocese includes 11 additional priests: Joseph, LaCosse, the Revs. Donald Hartman, Aloysius Hasenberg, Raymond Hoefgen, , Frank Lenz, Clement LePine, Guy Thoren, Bernard Van der Shueren and non-diocesan priests Revs. Armour Roberts and James Wolf.
