LOS ANGELES : Plea Bargain Would Ban Return of Priest to L.A.
The city attorney’s office is attempting to prevent a Jesuit priest living in Ireland from returning to California for three years as part of a plea agreement to settle charges that the priest hugged and kissed a 9-year-old Sunland girl he was asked to counsel.
However, an attorney for Father Patrick Kelly, 72, said that Kelly has not yet agreed to the ban as part of his no-contest plea submitted Thursday to one count of misdemeanor sexual battery.
Prosecutors and Kelly’s attorney, Donald H. Steier, said they have agreed to three years’ probation for Kelly. Municipal Commissioner Barry D. Kohn gave Kelly until April 28 to submit through his attorney a signed acknowledgment of the agreement.
Prosecutors would not say what they will do if the priest refuses to accept the banishment.
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