Texas files additional sexual assault charges against Catholic priest accused of harassing women | US Crime

A grand jury in Texas has brought additional sexual assault charges against a Catholic priest, accusing him of abusing women he met while serving as a pastor in that state and southeastern Louisiana, officials said.

Anthony Odiong now faces a total of five counts of first-degree sexual assault and two additional counts of second-degree sexual assault – all related to three different women – after a new indictment was filed against him on Thursday in state court in McLennan County, Texas.

A previous indictment against Odiong, 55, obtained by the McLennan County District Attorney's Office on Sept. 12, initially charged him in the cases of two women: one count of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault. In other words, the newer indictment now includes another victim and four more counts of first-degree sexual assault.

Odiong, who was first arrested in July, could receive a life sentence if convicted on any of the first-degree charges. The second-degree charges each carry up to 20 years in prison in Texas. Texas is one of only about a dozen states that criminalize sexual acts between clergy and adults who are emotionally dependent on their clergy counsel.

Since the case was still pending on Thursday, Odiong is believed to have pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Thursday's grand jury issued its indictment almost immediately after completing its investigation into Odiong's case, taking little time to deliberate.

A police investigation in Waco led by Detective Bradley DeLange led to Odiong's arrest, just months after the Guardian published a report detailing previous allegations against the priest, ranging from sexual assault and unwanted touching to financial abuse. All of the allegations came from women the Nigerian national had met through his work as a Catholic priest.

Police affidavits show that the Guardian's investigation prompted a woman to go to the Waco police station and report Odiong sexually assaulting her in 2012.

DeLange's subsequent investigation revealed evidence that Odiong presented himself as a spiritual advisor to women with personal problems – and then exploited his proximity to seek sexual contact with them.

He is alleged to have had sexual intercourse with at least one of the women at the centre of the first charge against him. In the case of at least one of the other victims, he is alleged to have managed to pressure the woman into having anal sex with her husband despite religious objections to such encounters – and he is also alleged to have persuaded her to reveal details of her experience to him in order to gain his satisfaction.

In addition, investigators said they found digital images of child abuse in Odiong's possession. These allegations were not included in any of the charges against Odiong, but that does not prevent authorities from eventually filing formal charges related to these allegations if they deem it necessary.

In total, more than eight women have come forward to police with broadly similar allegations against Odiong, although not all have resulted in charges. That number of accusers has overridden the statute of limitations – or time limits for filing criminal charges – as a consideration in Odiong's case due to technicalities in Texas law.

Police arrested Odiong on July 16 near his home in the planned Ave Maria Catholic community in Florida. Officers later transferred him to McLennan Jail, where Waco is located, where he was given a relatively high $2.5 million bail, which he was unable to raise.

Odiong was ordained a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Uyo, Nigeria in 1993. In 2006, the then Bishop of Austin, Texas, Gregory Aymond, invited Odiong to work there.

After a stopover in Rome, Odiong was granted permission to work in the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 2015 – Aymond had since been appointed archbishop of that city. The archdiocese recently issued a statement to the New York Times saying that Odiong was in New Orleans only at the request of his superiors in Uyo.

Odiong served as a clergyman in Aymond's archdiocese until last December, although some of his accusers had previously reported him to church authorities in New Orleans and Austin, the police or both, according to the Guardian's investigative research.

At least one lawsuit seeking damages against Odiong and church officials is pending in an unresolved bankruptcy protection petition filed by the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 2020 after years of wrangling with litigation related to clergy abuse. According to a database maintained by Penn State Law School, the Archdiocese of New Orleans is one of more than a dozen Catholic institutions that have filed for bankruptcy protection, largely to avoid lawsuits related to the church's global clergy abuse scandal.

Revelations during the Archdiocese of New Orleans' bankruptcy proceedings have sparked a Louisiana State Police investigation into whether the organization operated a child sex trafficking ring that committed “decades-long, widespread abuse of minors” that was “covered up and not reported to law enforcement,” authorities said in affidavits. As of Thursday, no charges have been filed against any of the archdiocese's highest-ranking members – either past or present – as part of that investigation.