Noted local priest on leave after second claim of sex abuse
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The new complaint was filed Monday by a former national television-news correspondent, now 43 and living in Chicago, who said Cornelius had sexually abused him about five times over about seven months while he was a student in the 1970s at John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Burien, a Catholic school.
The Seattle Archdiocese is investigating the complaint and has contacted the Seattle Police Department, which has the case under review.
The 56-year-old Cornelius, who has denied the allegations through the archdiocese, was a fixture at Seattle's Immaculate Conception Church in the Central Area, which he oversaw for nearly two decades. In 1997, after a sexual-abuse complaint by an Idaho man a year earlier, he was moved from Seattle to an Everett parish, also named Immaculate Conception, where he could be closely supervised.
An investigation into that complaint was inconclusive, said Bill Gallant, spokesman for the Seattle Archdiocese. Despite not having a conclusive finding, the archdiocese moved Cornelius to the Everett parish and gave him limited duties as parochial vicar, or assistant pastor.
He was allowed to continue saying Mass, giving last rites and performing chaplain duties but was not allowed to associate with altar boys without supervision, Gallant said. He was also required to undergo counseling and report regularly to a case monitor, both of which are continuing, Gallant said.
Cornelius also had been investigated in 1989 by Seattle police and the state's Child Protective Services. Both cleared him, and he was allowed to continue his ministry, Gallant said.
The most recent allegation comes as Catholic archdioceses across the country find themselves under intense scrutiny for their handling of sex-abuse cases involving clergy. It's the second case that has come to light in the Seattle Archdiocese since the larger scandal began; the first involves a Clark County lawsuit filed in September accusing Pierce County priest Barry Ashwell of sexually molesting a former altar boy, also back in the 1970s.
Ashwell had also been accused of a similar allegation five years earlier, but an investigation into that claim was inconclusive, according to the archdiocese. He, too, has denied the accusations through the archdiocese is on administrative leave while the archdiocese investigates the latest claim.
Neither Cornelius nor Ashwell responded to interview requests.
Cornelius became prominent in Seattle's African-American community during his tenure at the Central Area's Immaculate Conception. He was one of six activists nominated by local black organizations to receive an award for service to the African-American community in a 1990 Nordstrom awards ceremony. He would speak at community events, such as the dedication of the Urban Peace Circle in 1994, honoring those who died of violence.
In the 1980s, he helped push locally for the One Church, One Child organization, a national program that seeks to get at least one African-American family or individual in each church to become a foster or adoptive parent to at least one African-American child. Cornelius served on the organization's local and national boards, and he helped Washington become the 38th state to incorporate the program, which remains active here.
Cornelius himself adopted several children and took in numerous others between about 1979 and 1989. News reports at the time said the adoptions were part of a national movement among black Catholics to deal with the problem of older youths living in institutions or on the streets.
It was his role as an adoptive parent that prompted the 1989 investigations by police and Child Protective Services after a deacon at the Central Area's Immaculate Conception raised concerns about his relationship with his children, Gallant said.
"There was nothing there," Gallant said. "None of the children said anything was wrong, so it was immediately dismissed."
Seattle police Detective Dale Harper, formerly of the department's sex-crimes unit, confirmed Monday that he had led that investigation but declined to comment, saying only that Cornelius was never charged with a crime.
Child Protective Services also said it could not comment. But one person involved in the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was thorough and that several children were interviewed.
Concern was raised again in 1996, when the Idaho man told the archdiocese that the priest had sexually molested him in the early 1970s while the man was a high-school student and the priest was at a Boise seminary, Gallant said.
The archdiocese hired an independent forensic psychiatrist to investigate the claim, according to Gallant, who said the report came back inconclusive. He would not discuss details of the allegation.
In a letter to the Idaho man, the archdiocese explained that the priest had been relocated to a place where he would not pose a risk and where he would be closely supervised.
"Once again, the investigation was inconclusive, but it appeared (the late Archbishop Thomas Murphy) was still interested in making sure the community was protected, so the decision was made to place him on limited ministry," Gallant said.
"It's like I've said before: If we're going to err, we want to err on the side of safety."
When the priest was moved to Everett, his Seattle parish told its members he was being relocated and given fewer responsibilities because of health reasons. Gallant said that information did not come from the archdiocese and said the priest's new parish pastor had been informed of the true reasons for the move.
The man who filed Monday's complaint said Cornelius "just began showing up" at Kennedy High in the mid-1970s. He brought doughnuts for the football team and would invite players to his living quarters at the church rectory, cooking for them and serving barbecued ribs and fried chicken, the alleged victim said in telephone interviews from his Chicago home.
"He brought us in with food."
The alleged victim, who is African American, said the priest became a friend and a father figure to him.
"We'd never seen a black priest before," he said. "We thought he was cool. He drove a nice little black Mustang. He took an interest in us."
The man, who asked not to be identified, said Cornelius also invited him to spend the night with him at the priest's living quarters. The priest would wrestle him — "like two guys would wrestle," the man said. "The first few times, I didn't think anything of it."
Eventually the priest would get the boy into a position on his stomach and proceed to lie on top of him and make sexual motions while trying to pull the boy's shorts down, the alleged victim said.
He resisted and penetration never occurred, although the priest tried, he said.
"Back then I guess I was so ... I don't know if I didn't believe no one would believe me, or if I would lose his friendship, or if he would cut me off from doughnuts or not let me use his car like he used to, or what it was," the man said.
"There was clearly a denial that prevented me from ever saying, 'Father John, leave me the (expletive) alone.' "
The man said he broke his silence after so many years after seeing others coming forward around the country to tell of sexual abuse by clergy. He said he has no plan to file a civil lawsuit and only wants the archdiocese to make sure it closely monitors its priests.
Doug Wheeler, school director of Zion Preparatory Academy, a private elementary school in Columbia City, staunchly defended Cornelius. He said he has known the priest for more than 20 years and has worked with him on numerous community projects. Cornelius' adopted children and grandchildren also attended Zion, Wheeler said.
"I've been in this community all my life, and in all my contact with Father Cornelius through groups, organizations, committees, I've never heard anything, absolutely nothing negative about him, and that's the truth," said Wheeler.
Metropolitan King County Councilman Larry Gossett also has "never heard anything like that — any whispers, anything underground, above-ground — of sexual exploitation on (Cornelius') part."
Gossett, who met Cornelius when the priest first arrived at the Central Area's Immaculate Conception, said that they, too, have worked together on community projects over the years and that at one point, Cornelius was the only pastor in the Central Area willing to set up an overnight homeless shelter for men.
Gossett occasionally attended services at Immaculate Conception. "As a pastor he was always inspirational and motivational," Gossett said.
He added that recently, when local African Americans expressed great concern about the number of young black men being shot by police, Cornelius came from Everett to attend community rallies.
Capt. Neil Low, head of the Seattle Police Department's Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse section, said Monday that the current allegation would be reviewed with the King County prosecutor's office to determine how to proceed, given that the statute of limitations has expired.
"At this point, my early feeling is there's not going to be a lot we can do 25 years later," Low said.
The Seattle Archdiocese has been considered a leader in how it handles sexual-abuse claims against clergy after it reformed its policies following scandals in the late 1980s. Among other things, its new policies require that law enforcement be contacted anytime a complaint is made.
Gallant said the procedures are being followed to the letter, as they were in previous complaints against the priest.
"The archdiocese has had these policies, and they're working," Gallant said.
Ray Rivera: 206-464-2926 or rayrivera@seattletimes.com.
Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com.