Patrick
Joseph McCabe (74), a former Catholic priest wanted in Ireland on
numerous charges of sexual abuse and currently fighting extradition from
the U.S., was recently denied bail by a federal judge in San Francisco.
McCabe
was arrested in August on an extradition warrant which he has
strenuously contested.
His attorney has also sought to secure the
ex-priest’s release from the Santa Rita jail where he has been held
since his arrest.
McCabe is sought for
prosecution in Ireland, facing charges of molesting six boys from 1973
to 1981.
However, should he be successful in his attempt to defeat the
extradition order, he will still face a slew of charges stemming from
the time he spent as a priest in the Diocese of Santa Rosa, California.
When
McCabe’s extradition fight first hit the headlines in the U.S., four
separate lawsuits were quickly filed against him in California.
The
first two were from men known only as John Doe 76 and John Doe 77, who
also implicated the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa in their complaints.
A
second pair of lawsuits was filed in Sonoma County court.
One was on
behalf of a nine year-old victim, the other a 17 year old.
McCabe
has made six requests for bail which have all been denied by California
judges, with the prosecution saying recently that he is “flatly
mistaken in his interpretation of the law.”
The statement came in
response to McCabe’s most recent request for bail on the grounds of
deteriorating health and the fact that he would be granted bail if he
was in Ireland.
McCabe has also argued that the claims against him have
been “unusually delayed.”
The Pasadena, California-based Courthouse News Service quoted
U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag as saying: “McCabe abused his position of
trust and authority to serially sexually molest young boys to fulfill
his own admitted fetish…The fact that the majority of these children
apparently delayed coming forward to authorities to report their
victimization should be fully expected; it should not, perversely, then
be used by their molester as a basis for freedom.”
The
prosecution had argued that McCabe was a flight risk and the judge
agreed, also citing the fact that the possibility of bail in another
country is irrelevant to a case in the U.S.
Robert
Beles, McCabe’s attorney, repeated that his client denies the charges
and claimed that bail was not set for McCabe because of the “hysteria”
attached to sex abuse cases in both the United States and in Ireland.
McCabe’s extradition hearing has been set for February 4th, 2011.
SIC: NYIE/USA