Crime & Safety
Sex Abuse Probe of Chicago Priest Opened Again
Cook County Sheriff's Department looking into new information as a young man comes forward to talk about what he saw.
By DENNIS ROBAUGH
A sex abuse investigation into a Lake View priest was reopened Monday — just days after the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that the priest was cleared of suspicion.
On Monday, the Cook County Sheriff's Department said the investigation into Father Michael. W. O'Connell had resumed, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Also Monday, an Illinois man spoke at a press conference held the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and said he witnessed the priest engage in improper acts at a school gym.
The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell, 57, who served at Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park, where the alleged abuse is said to have taken place, returned to active ministry as pastor of St. Alphonsus Church on Chicago's North Side.
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He served in Orland Park from 1997 to 2012.
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