Former President accused of sexual abuse of children eligible for home detention

A former Catholic priest who is experiencing accusations of sexual abuse of children is eligible for home detention, a judge of Baltimore decided on Tuesday.

William “Bill” Mannion Jr

During the meeting, District Judge Krystin Richardson said he is “worried about the nature of the accusations that have been revealed.” However, she decided that Mannion, 62, from Sparrows Point, is eligible for home detention through the Baltimore County Detention Center, while waiting for trial.

Richardson mentioned during the hearing that Mannion had a low level on a risk assessment tool.

No children lives with him and does not take care of minors at work as a psychiatric medical assistant at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, the judge added. The medical center did not immediately offer a comment about Mannion.

The state assistant lawyer Emily Abell asked Mannion to continue to be detained without bail, arguing that he used his position and authority as a priest to prey on a child.

The detectives analyzed the therapy records of the alleged victim and interviewed his parents, she said, who confirmed details about his presence at the Catholic School St. Agnes and change in behavior.

“It has been years of abuse that this victim had to endure,” Abell said. “This was someone who was put in a power position.”

Meanwhile Mannion’s lawyer Charles Wachter asked the judge to release his client in detention at home. Waachter described his client as a lifetime resident in Maryland who is married with two adult children.

Him The wife, Suzanne, sat in the fourth row of the gallery of the courtroom during the hearing. She refused to comment.

Mannion graduated from Cardinal Gibbons School in 1980. Later he participated in what is now called Loyola University Maryland and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, where she obtained a master’s degree in theology in 1988, Wachter said.

“This case, as you know, has many years,” Wachter told the judge. “It is definitely defense.”

The lawyer said he was in regular contact with the main detective for more than a year. Wachter said his client was transformed after finding out that there is a mandate for his arrest.

Mannion took place previously with the law, according to the testimony of a preventive service officer. He received probation before the trial in 2000 for two -degree attack, as well as a similar disposition in 2001 for driving while being intoxicated. These results are not considered convictions.

In the present case, a man, now 40 years old, told investigators in October 2023 that Mannion abused him from 1991 to 1994, the Baltimore County Police informed.

The police say the abuse took place in block 600 in St. Agnes Lane, where the Catholic School of St. Agnes is adjacent to the Church of St. Agnes.

He told the detectives that he is an altar server in the church. He reported that abuse was occasionally starting with the second class, but became more frequently in the fourth grade, the police wrote in documents.

Incidents have grown in frequency and also became more violent, the police man said. He assumed that Mannion often had breathing during incidents, according to police documents.

Since the accusations were filed against Mannion on March 20, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has received no additional reports on alleged abuses by him or others in St. Agnes, according to a spokesman.

Baltimore Archdiocese confirmed that Mannion started to St. Agnes in 1994 and left the priesthood – and St. Agnes – in 1998.

Mannion officially asked to be secularized or eliminated from the church as a priest, in 2001, a process that was completed in 2004, according to church officials. A spokesman for the Archdiocese did not say why he left, but added that he was not related to accusations of abuse.

The spokesman of the Baltimore County Police Department, Joy Lestewart, said that the department will not be able to talk about the case, calling it an open investigation.

The duration of an investigation like this “may vary”, she wrote in one E -mail, saying that witnesses must be interviewed and “the location of their places can take time”. She also said that the documentation related to the charges should be produced.

“After that, the case will be taken over to the State Lawyer for review,” she said.

Baltimore County State lawy, Scott Shellenberger, refused to comment.

David Lorenz, the director of the survivors network in Maryland, of those abused by the priests, said in a E -mail in which his heart is heading for the man who accused Mannion.

“It takes victims for many decades to appear, and this victim has found strength at a relatively fragile age.

Separately, Mannion has played a key role in bringing a rapist of notorious children John Merzbacher to justice.

In recent years, Mannion spoke to investigators with The Prosecutor General’s Office of Maryland for their great investigation in the history of abuses in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which was launched in 2023.

Mannion “described Merzbacher’s grit and improper behavior,” according to the report.

The report mentioned That Mannion remembered that Merzbacher sent the victim to the cloak and was alone with her.

“In 1993, he saw the victim of a awakening and asked him if he was a victim of Merzbacher and she said yes,” the report shows.

According to the report, Mannion reported the abuse of the Archdiocese.

Baltimore Banner Jessica Calefati, Darreonna Davis and Justin Fenton, contributed to this report.