Texas priest charged with sexual assault now accused in murder-for-hire plot

2010-11-24 05:05:40 GMT+7 (ICT)

DALLAS, TEXAS (BNO NEWS) -- Texas former Roman Catholic priest John Fiala on Tuesday was accused of conspiring to have a teenager killed, the same that accused him of sexual assault, local media reported.

Fiala, 52, was originally charged with sexual assault of a boy and was arrested last Thursday by Texas state troopers at his home in Garland. The arrest came after the former priest negotiated a murder for hire with an undercover agent.

The investigation began after Fiala’s neighbor reported law enforcement agents that the priest offered him $5,000 to kill the youngster, who is now 18 years old and accused him of sexual abuse.

Fiala is being held on a $700,000 bail in the Dallas County jail on two counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of solicitation to commit murder. Overall, Fiala faces a total of six charges adding up the indictments released last week in Howard County, Texas.

The now 18-year-old victim filed a lawsuit last April against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio and the-Archbishop Jose Gomez. The lawsuit alleged that Fiala repeatedly sexually abused him between 2007 and 2008, when he was 16 years old.

Fiala allegedly twice forced the victim to have sex with him at gunpoint in repeated occasions at a hotel room and during private catechism sessions. At that time, Fiala was the pastor at Sacred Heart of Mary Parish in the remote West Texas community of Rocksprings, about 110 miles of San Antonio.

In addition to the criminal charges, Fiala also faces a civilian lawsuit in Texas from the alleged victim. The suit also accuses the Archdioceses of Omaha and San Antonio and Fiala's then religious order of being aware of the priest’s actions and covering up prior sexual abuses of minors.

In the spring of 2002, the Omaha Archdiocese received a complaint that Fiala made sexual advances against a minor sometime in the 1980s. The minor refused to confirm the accusations and no charges were filed.

Fiala was removed from the Archdiocese of San Antonio, as Sacred Heart of Mary Parish belonged to it, and has not been reassigned since.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-11-24

Fiala allegedly twice forced the victim to have sex with him at gunpoint in repeated occasions at a hotel room and during private catechism sessions. At that time, Fiala was the pastor at Sacred Heart of Mary Parish in the remote West Texas community of Rocksprings, about 110 miles of San Antonio.

That sounds rather kinky for a Catholic priest!