Criminal Law
A Former Priest Is Charged With Sex Crimes Against Children
A federal grand jury has indicted a defrocked American priest on charges of having sex with minors while running a children’s shelter in a remote part of East Timor.
Richard Daschbach, 84, faces seven counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct at the Topu Honis shelter that he founded decades ago in the mountains of the predominantly Catholic island country south of Indonesia. A Department of Justice spokesperson said Monday she could not comment on whether there are plans to extradite the former priest who is currently on trial in East Timor for the same allegations.
If convicted in the U.S., Daschbach could receive up to 30 years in prison for each count, according to the indictment returned Thursday by a grand jury in Washington, D.C.
