An Ohio priest, who was arrested in 2020, was discovered responsible by a federal jury of sex trafficking of a minor and now faces as much as life in jail. Michael J. Zacharias, 56, of Findlay, Ohio, was charged with five sex trafficking expenses, including of a minor and of an grownup by pressure, fraud, coercion, or enticement. The Department of Justice stated Zacharias, a priest at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Findlay, Ohio, who was ordained in 2002, was convicted of trafficking three victims once they had been minors and adults. The jury was offered proof in courtroom exhibiting how he met the victims once they had been younger. At the time, Zacharias was in Seminary college at St. Catherines Catholic Parish School in Toledo. A felony grievance stated investigators are conscious that his alleged sexual conduct with minors goes again to the late Nineties. Zacharias began grooming the victims for industrial sex acts once they had been younger, the DOJ stated, and used his place as a priest and trainer to combine himself into the boys lives as a individual of belief. It was gathered that the victims gave into Zacharias and conversations turned sexual earlier than he grew to become sexual with the boys. Also, throughout that point, all three boys developed addictions to opiates, beginning out first with ache drugs, then later, heroin. Testimony offered by the victims throughout the trial confirmed how simple it was for them to undergo Zacharias. The boys feared dropping him as a father determine and good friend but in addition feared dropping their connection to God and going by means of opioid withdrawal as a result of Zacharias was giving them cash to purchase medicine. One of the victims testified that he was afraid Zacharias would sexually abuse his brother, who was not just one of the victims but in addition a minor, and others if he didn’t adjust to the defendants calls for to supply sexual providers for cash.”This defendant betrayed the victims in the most inhumane way,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division stated. He robbed them of their childhood, their dignity and their religion. He inflicted merciless psychological hurt, preying on their fears and forcing them to decide on between submitting to industrial sex acts, or incurring the ache of dropping a father determine or counselor, struggling withdrawal illness, and risking sexual abuse of a liked one. A sentencing date has not been set for Zacharias, however based on the DOJ, he faces a minimal of 15 years and a most of life in jail. The publish Priest convicted of five sex trafficking expenses, including of a minor appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.
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