Bishop Demetri Khoury, of Toledo, who was convicted on a felony charge for fondling a woman in a Michigan casino last year, has been granted a request to retire, according to a spokesman for the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

Bishop Demetri, 55, who oversaw 45 churches in eight states and Ontario, was arrested July 9 and charged with fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct after grabbing the woman's breast in the Turtle Creek Casino near Traverse City.

Police said the bishop was not wearing clerical garb and appeared highly intoxicated at the time. They said he got up from a slot machine and started to walk past a woman seated nearby, then reached over and grabbed her breast. The woman stood up and tried to slap the bishop several times, police said, based on a videotape provided by casino security.

A week after his arrest, Bishop Demetri was banned from preaching or performing liturgies by Metropolitan Philip, head of the 450,000-member archdiocese.

Metropolitan Philip said at the time that Bishop Demetri "has acknowledged that he has a problem with alcohol" and agreed to undergo treatment.

Bishop Demetri pleaded guilty Feb. 25, the day before his trial, to a felony charge of attempted fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced last month to 28 days in jail, placed on probation for two years, and fined $200.

The Rev. George Kevorkian, hierarchical assistant at the archdiocese's headquarters in Englewood, N.J., said yesterday that Bishop Demetri "submitted a letter requesting retirement, and that request has been accepted. He will relocate out of Toledo, but the location is unknown."

Father George, who said he was speaking on behalf of Metropolitan Philip, said Bishop Demetri remains banned from ministry pending a meeting of the archdiocese's synod of bishops in June.

Bishop Demetri could not be reached for comment yesterday. His name has been removed from the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese Web site.

The bishop was born in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Sept. 20, 1948. He was ordained a priest in 1975 and consecrated as a bishop on March 12, 1995.

Bishop Demetri, one of five bishops in the North America archdiocese, oversaw churches in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ontario.

There are two Antiochian Orthodox Christian churches in the Toledo area, St. George Orthodox Cathedral on Woodley Road and St. Elias on Harroun Road in Sylvania.

First Published May 22, 2004, 11:01 a.m.