A hearing at which a Roman Catholic priest with ties to Texas and south-east Louisiana was tentatively scheduled to plead guilty to criminal charges of abusing his authority as a clergyman to pursue sex with spiritually vulnerable female congregants was called off, court officers said Monday.
The proceeding in the state criminal courthouse of Waco, Texas, had been tenuously called as Anthony Odiong spent more than a month mulling a plea deal.
Though the terms have not been made public, the Guardian understood Odiong essentially was offered the chance to plead guilty in exchange for a possibility at getting parole after accruing 20 years in prison.
There were signs Odiong, 55, or his attorney indicated his willingness to plead out rather than be publicly tried on the charges because state prosecutors had prepared victims in the case to deliver Monday what are known as impact statements, which typically happens during the sentencing phase of such cases.
But the plea deal put on the table appears to have fallen apart, and the hearing was canceled sometime over the weekend, officials’ remarks suggested.
Courthouse staff told the Waco Tribune-Herald: “Father Odiong … has changed his mind.” And the staff confirmed Monday to the Guardian that the statement regarding the reversal had been conveyed with input from Odiong’s private defense attorney, Gerald Villarrial, who declined comment.
The canceled hearing left Odiong presumably proceeding toward an eventual trial on five charges of sexual assault in the first degree and two such counts in the second degree stemming from encounters with three women. He could face life imprisonment if convicted of any first-degree charges.
A Waco lawyer representing some of Odiong’s alleged victims in a civil suit, Chris King, said that his clients had been excited and surprised about the anticipated guilty plea. Though he said it was disappointing that it did not pan out, he expressed confidence that his clients would ultimately be vindicated.
“Now it’s a much longer road,” King said. “But as far as we are concerned, we know what’s going to be at the end of the road. And when it’s a longer road, it’s a stiffer punishment.”
Monday’s canceled court appearance had been scheduled after a late November hearing revealed that Odiong had violated Catholic priests’ promise to practice celibacy by fathering at least two children with women whom he had met through his ministry. Authorities considered the children proof that Odiong had a pattern of pursuing women he met in his role as a clergyman, which in Texas is a felony.
There is no indication that any of the three women at the center of the charges against Odiong are the mothers of his children. Waco police detective Bradley DeLange testified in November that one of the children – who lives in the US – was involved in a DNA test which showed a greater than 99.99% that Odiong was the minor’s father. The Guardian understands the other child lives in Odiong’s native Nigeria.
Odiong was arrested in July within months of the Guardian having published a report on women who accused him of sexual coercion and unwanted touching to abusive financial control. All of those who spoke to the outlet were women who had met Odiong through his work.
Sworn police statements show that the Guardian reporting – published in February – prompted a woman to walk into the Waco police department in March and allege that Odiong had sexually assaulted her in 2012.
DeLange’s ensuing investigation found evidence to suggest Odiong would position himself as a spiritual adviser to women navigating personal problems, particularly marital ones – and then exploit his closeness to them to have or seek sex with them.
The detective has since testified that he has confirmed about 10 alleged victims of Odiong across the US and abroad, even if not all produced charges. Texas law allowed authorities to file charges against Odiong without consideration for how long ago some of the alleged crimes occurred because of the sheer number of accusers to come forward against Odiong.
With respect to two of the three women who led to charges against him, Odiong is accused of sexually assaulting at least one of them directly.
Odiong was ordained into the Catholic priesthood in the diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, in 1993. In 2006, the bishop of Austin, Texas, at the time – Gregory Aymond – allowed Odiong to transfer there and work in a region that includes Waco.
The same year of the alleged 2012 assault, Odiong moved to Rome, ostensibly to study. He then gained permission in 2015 to work within the archdiocese of New Orleans, where Aymond had been appointed archbishop six years earlier, according to church documents obtained by the Guardian.
Odiong – a naturalized US citizen – spent years at the St Anthony of Padua church in the community of Luling, Louisiana, developing a large following in part by hosting special masses after which some congregants claimed to have recovered from medical ailments.
Despite efforts to report his past to local church authorities, the New Orleans archdiocese did not remove him from his role at St Anthony until December 2023, about seven months before his arrest at a home in the planned community of Ave Maria, Florida.
Odiong remained in jail, unable to make $5.5m bond, despite testimony from authorities that he has access to a wealth of money – including from congregants who are convinced he is innocent. A hearing in his case is tentatively set for Thursday after attorneys for the Catholic diocese of Austin requested to limit the scope of a search warrant served on the organization by Waco police as they try to understand how the church handled his career.
After November’s disclosure of Odiong’s fatherhood in the biological sense, the Austin diocese issued a statement describing itself as “deeply saddened by the news that is emerging” and pledging cooperation with as well as support for “law enforcement in their efforts”.
“Let us hold in prayers those have been [affected] by this matter,” the statement said.
Another priest who once served at St Anthony, Lawrence Hecker, on 3 December pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and raping a boy in 1975 at a church in the city of New Orleans. He is tentatively set to receive a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment Wednesday.
Revelations from the investigation into Hecker as well as an unresolved 2020 bankruptcy protection filing from the New Orleans archdiocese have prompted a Louisiana state police investigation into whether the church organization locally ran a child sex-trafficking ring that inflicted “widespread … abuse of minors dating back decades” that was illegally covered up, according to statements sworn under oath by authorities.
