The man who federal prosecutors say was one of several boys groomed and molested by a Roman Catholic priest in northwest Ohio over a span of about 20 years said Thursday he had heard the “groomed” term once before the priest himself used it in his presence.
The first time, the alleged victim testified during his second day as a witness in U.S. District Court in Toledo against Father Michael Zacharias, was several weeks before, when he saw the feature film Spotlight that described how Boston Globe reporters uncovered a church conspiracy to shield pedophile priests in the Boston archdiocese.
The man, now in his mid-30s and whose name The Blade is withholding because of the sexual nature of the alleged crimes, is one of four people Father Zacharias is accused of abusing between 1999 and his August, 2020, arrest. He is charged with one count of sex trafficking of a minor, two counts of sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or coercion, and seven counts of sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion.
Based on several FBI agents’ testimony Thursday, the alleged abuse came to light after the alleged victim, who admitted on the stand to selling opiate drugs to support his family and his own usage, was arrested during a local drug enforcement campaign. A search of his cell phone turned up recurring calls and text messaging with Father Zacharias, and after the priest’s arrest several more victims were identified during the continuing investigation.
The alleged victim told the court he could barely contain his emotions as he held the cell phone camera that recorded the priest’s confession — a recording shown Thursday to the jury.
“I knew from the first time I saw him,” Father Zacharias told that camera, he wanted to perform oral sex on the then sixth-grade boy, according to the video.
He said he knew the boy’s father was “out of the picture” and began the grooming process, which included visiting the boy in the hospital when he fell ill with meningitis and frequently visiting him and his family at their home.
Father Zacharias met the alleged victim during his pre-ordination year as a seminarian at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in West Toledo, and continued to visit him or, later receive him as a visitor at his assignments to Ohio parishes in Mansfield, Van Wert, Fremont, and Findlay.
The alleged victim said he finally consented to receiving oral sex sometime in 2004, either late in his sophomore year or early junior year of high school, at the rectory at St. Peter’s Parish in Mansfield. But it was more than a decade later, after numerous similar encounters at several different parishes, that the “confession video” made him realize what had been going on.
“He had his own agenda,” the man said Thursday. “I was just along for the ride. He had trained me the whole way.”
He also recorded that day an “action video” that could not be seen clearly from the courtroom gallery but which allegedly depicted Father Zacharias performing oral sex. The man said that just as he did every other time that occurred, he watched pornography on a laptop or tablet computer screen during the act rather than look at what was being done to him.
He said he never agreed to record another video even though the priest pressured him to do so. He also did not agree to any photographs because he feared what would happen if Father Zacharias were ever arrested.
Under cross examination by defense lawyer Mark Geudtner, the man conceded that his trips to Father Zacharias’ various parish residences were fundamentally voluntary, and acknowledged having told FBI Agent Brian Russ during later questioning that Father Zacharias “really is a very nice guy.”
“I’m still conflicted about it to this day,” he told the court.
Mr. Geudtner also walked the alleged victim through his criminal drug history, which included a traffic stop during which he gave police a younger brother’s name and birthday because he knew he had an outstanding arrest warrant and his own recurring drug abuse.
But while he accepted Mr. Geudtner’s assertion that “you’re willing to do whatever is asked of you by the government to avoid going back to prison,” the alleged victim denied — as did FBI investigators later in the day — that he had been offered any prosecutorial leniency in his drug case in exchange for testifying against Father Zacharias.
He also insisted that, while one of the oldest payment checks investigators found was for $1,500 written out in 2009, the priest’s abuse had begun years before, because it started before his own son’s birth when he was still 17.
Kyle Fulmer, an FBI special agent involved in the Toledo drug-trafficking investigation, told the court the alleged victim was pulled over after what appeared to have been a drug delivery to a “female associate.” The ensuing search of his phone then revealed “texts of a sexual nature, money exchange, reference to videos, things like that,” Mr. Fulmer said.
When he was “eventually” questioned about that, the FBI agent said, “His reaction was not one of surprise.”
That separate investigation was soon handed off to the FBI’s Lima, Ohio office, Mr. Fulmer said,
First Published May 4, 2023, 11:11 p.m.
