State Ban Sought on Return of Priest Accused in Sex Case

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office is attempting to ban a Jesuit priest now 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.

But an attorney for Father Patrick Kelly, 72, said Kelly has not yet agreed to the ban as part of his no-contest plea submitted Thursday to a single count of misdemeanor sexual battery.

Both prosecutors and Kelly’s attorney, Donald H. Steier, however, said they have agreed to three years probation for Kelly. Municipal Court 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.

Kelly, a visiting priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Tujunga, went to the home of parishioners in Sunland on Sept. 26 in response to a request from the mother of the girl. The mother had requested that the child be counseled over a dispute the girl was having with a neighbor, according to Deputy City Atty. Tracy Webb.

Webb said Kelly pulled the girl onto his lap, fondled her and kissed her repeatedly when he was alone with her in the living room and den of the family home.

After Kelly left, the girl told her mother what had occurred. The mother then called police. After a police investigation, the city attorney’s office filed the misdemeanor criminal complaint against Kelly in December, but Kelly returned to Ireland shortly afterward and has not returned, Webb said.

Steier, however, characterized the incident as a misunderstanding. Steier said the district attorney’s office rejected the case because of insufficient evidence to prosecute as a felony, which a spokesman for the office confirmed.

Steier said Kelly agreed to the three-year probation over Steier’s objections because Kelly did not want the child to be forced to testify at a trial.

“In my opinion, there is no evidence of sexual battery,” Steier said in an interview. “This is a case involving perhaps excessive hugging and kissing about the face by a visiting priest from Ireland, where culturally they may express themselves differently.”

Steier said he agreed only to ask Kelly if he was willing to accept a three-year ban on entering California.

Regardless of whether the ban is imposed, Steier said, Kelly remains a permanent resident of Ireland and has no immediate plans to return to California.