LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel today announced the release of a report (PDF) by the Department of Attorney General concerning allegations of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct that took place in the Diocese of Lansing.
The report was released to acknowledge the reports of abuse from victims and to report the Department’s findings. The document is a compilation of excerpts from the information obtained from the tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the Diocese of Lansing, and the electronic documents found on the diocesan computers, as well as reports of allegations disclosed by the Diocese.
The list of priests for which there were allegations of sexual misconduct against either children or adults since January 1, 1950, for the Diocese of Lansing that was established in 1937, is derived from information gleaned from a search warrant that was executed against the Diocese of Lansing on October 3, 2018, and from the tipline operated by the Department of Attorney General since 2018. There are 56 entries on this list, which includes 48 priests, three religious brothers and an apparent former religious brother, and four deacons; 42 were ordained or incardinated by the Diocese of Lansing.
“These reports are important, not just because we made a promise to the survivors years ago, but because victims, especially in cases like these where the assaults were perpetrated by entrusted members of a community, are often silenced – in some cases for decades or a lifetime,” Nessel said. “By publishing these reports, we are sharing their stories and validating their experiences. Criminal prosecutions are just one accountability metric. Ensuring each victim is heard, regardless of how long ago the sexual abuse and misconduct may have been, is important in acknowledging their pain and fostering a culture that prioritizes these victims over their silence.”
The Diocese of Lansing agreed to provide reports of abuse to the Department of Attorney General. Victims often reach out to their faith leaders to share stories of alleged abuse. The willingness of the Diocese to provide information was instrumental in the compilation of the report.
The report contains detailed descriptions of allegations of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct, including grooming and misuse of authority against minors and adults. The possible criminal prosecution of many of these allegations is barred by the statute of limitations, or because the accused priest is deceased, or for other allegations because the conduct did not violate Michigan law or the person who alleged the sexual abuse did not wish to pursue criminal charges.
The information is being released to the public 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. It is important to note that a criminal charge is merely an allegation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. It is also important to note that the inclusion in this report does not reflect a determination by the Department that the allegations are credible or otherwise substantiated or indicative of a crime. This is the fourth of what will be seven separate reports, one regarding each of the six Dioceses and the Archdiocese of Detroit. The Department of Attorney General released its report regarding the Diocese of Marquette on October 27, 2022; its report regarding the Diocese of Gaylord on January 8, 2024; and its report regarding the Diocese of Kalamazoo on May 22, 2024.
In October 2018, 42 Michigan State Police troopers, five officers from different law enforcement agencies and 15 special agents from the Department of Attorney General executed search warrants at Michigan’s seven dioceses. In that effort, they seized 220 boxes of paper documents and more than 3.5 million digital documents.
“This report represents countless hours of work and dedication since the department first executed search warrants as part of the Clergy Abuse Investigation,” Nessel continued. “I want to commend the Michigan State Police and my dedicated staff on their unwavering commitment to seeing justice served in these tremendously difficult cases.”
To date, the department has:
Completed the paper document review of more than 1.5 million documents;
Completed the electronic document review of more than 3.5 million documents;
Hired and trained a full-time victim advocate to support the hundreds of victims identified during the investigation;
Continued to refer the completed criminal investigations back to the respective dioceses;
Followed up with victims who have not been interviewed by a trauma-informed interviewer; and
Issued criminal charges in 11 cases throughout the entire state and secured convictions in nine cases, delivering justice for 38 survivors.
Of the 11 cases, two of the cases were related to priests ministering in the Diocese of Lansing, and one person who apparently was formerly a religious brother.
People v. Vincent DeLorenzo – DeLorenzo, a priest at Holy Redeemer Church in Burton, was sentenced to one year in jail and five years’ probation in June of 2023 on one count of Attempted First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct. DeLorenzo pled guilty to sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy following a service he officiated for the boy’s deceased family member in 1987. DeLorenzo died in January 2024 while serving his sentence.
People v. Timothy Crowley – Crowley, a priest at St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor, was sentenced in November 2023, to one year incarceration and five years’ probation on two counts of Second-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct. Crowley pled guilty in August 2023, and was originally charged with four felony counts of First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct and four felony counts of Second-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct for sexually abusing a minor child three decades ago.
People v. Joseph Comperchio – Comperchio, a church organist and Catholic school drama and music teacher at St. John Catholic School in Jackson who held himself out to be a Catholic brother, was sentenced to 10-30 years’ incarceration on one count of First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct and three counts of Second-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct. Comperchio pled guilty to each count in June of 2021, he had been originally charged with two counts of First-Degree CSC and nine counts of Second-Degree CSC for sexual abuse of four minor children, some as young as nine-years-old, in the 1970s. Comperchio died from natural causes in 2022 while serving his sentence.
The other eight criminal prosecutions of Catholic priests charged with sexual assault in Michigan by the Attorney General are:
People v. Brian Stanley – Stanley, a priest at St. Margaret’s Catholic Church in Otsego, was sentenced in January of 2020 to 60 days’ incarceration and five years’ probation on one count of Attempted False Imprisonment. Stanley pled guilty in January 2020 to immobilizing a teenage boy by wrapping him tightly in plastic wrap and using masking tape as additional binding to cover the child’s eyes and mouth, leaving him bound and alone in the janitor’s room for an extended period of time before returning and eventually letting him go in 2013.
People v. Jacob Vellian – Vellian, a priest at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Benton Harbor, was charged in May of 2019 with two counts of rape under the previous criminal sexual assault statutes. In November 2023, the Department was notified that Vellian likely passed while awaiting extradition from India but is awaiting formal confirmation from the Department of State of his death.
People v. Joseph “Jack” Baker – Baker, a pastor at St. Perpetua Parish in Waterford and at St. Mary Parish in Wayne and an associate pastor at Sacred Heart in Dearborn and at St. Hugo of the Hills Parish in Bloomfield Hills, was sentenced to 3-15 years’ incarceration in March of 2023 on one count of First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct. A jury found Baker guilty of sexual penetration with a person under 13 for a 2004 rape. The charge against Baker came about as a result of a referral from the Archdiocese of Detroit, which received the original report and immediately reported it to the lead prosecutor on Attorney General Nessel’s clergy abuse team in 2019.
People v. Neil Kalina – Kalina, a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township, was sentenced to 7-15 years’ incarceration in July 2022 on two counts of Second-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct. A jury found Kalina guilty of sexually assaulting a child aged 14 in 1984. Kalina is set to be resentenced in Macomb County Circuit Court on January 9, 2025.
People v. Gary Berthiaume – Berthiaume, a priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wyandotte and later Our Lady of Sorrows in Farmington, was sentenced to 17 months to 15 years’ incarceration on two counts of Second-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct and one count of Gross Indecency in January 2022. Berthiaume pled guilty to the CSC charges and no contest to the gross indecency in 2021. Berthiaume sexually abused three children between the ages of 13 and 15 in the 1970s. He was arrested in 1977 for sexual assault of two other minor children and served time in the Oakland County Jail for these crimes, before being transferred by the church to the Diocese of Cleveland.
People v. Gary Jacobs – Jacobs, a priest in the Diocese of Marquette active in Dickinson and Ontonagon Counties, was sentenced to 8-15 years’ incarceration on three counts of First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct and two counts of Second-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct. Jacobs pled guilty to each count, admitting to abusing five children under the age of 16 in the Upper Peninsula during the 1980s. In total, there were 11 complaints of abuse by children against Jacobs.
People v. Patrick Casey – Casey, a priest at St. Theodore of Canterbury Parish in Westland, was sentenced in November of 2019 to 45 days’ incarceration and one year of probation on one count of Aggravated Assault. Casey pled to the charge as a jury deliberated one count Third-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct for initiating oral sex with an adult attempting to make confession to him in 2013.
People v. Roy Joseph – Joseph, a priest in Marquette County, was charged with one count of First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct in January of 2020 for a 2006 assault. He is awaiting extradition from India.
In addition to the paper and digital documents seized from the dioceses, information is also received through the Attorney General’s clergy abuse tip line. The tip line has generated 1,137 tips related to abuse, leading to many police investigations, at least 180 victim interviews, and more than 285 police reports.
For Lansing, the investigation yielded 161 tips to the AG tipline; 44 those were provided directly from the Diocese of Lansing. Of the 220 boxes of paper documents that were seized from the Archdiocese and the six Dioceses, 24 boxes containing approximately 60,000 documents were reviewed related to the Diocese of Lansing. Of the 3.5 million electronic documents seized, 767,583 documents were reviewed related to the Diocese of Lansing.
Information can be shared via the investigation hotline at 844-324-3374 or by email.
For more information on the Attorney General’s clergy abuse investigation or to submit information, visit the department’s website.
Victims of sexual abuse and/or assault in need of additional resources should contact 855-VOICES4.