A defrocked priest already facing child molestation charges was accused Wednesday of sodomizing a second boy who was a parishioner in the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the 1990s.
Michael Stephen Baker, 59, is accused of having sex with a boy from March 1996 to September 1998, beginning when the youth was 15, according to an amended felony complaint.
Prosecutors contend that during a discussion in the rectory, Baker gave the boy a ring with a red stone emblazoned with a cross "as a symbol of their special friendship," then pricked and joined their bleeding fingers, telling the boy "that they were joined for life," according to a court document.
A few minutes later, Baker fondled the boy, prosecutors contend.
Prosecutors also say Baker gave the boy a cup of hot chocolate and sodomized him after he fell asleep.
The boy, now in his 20s, did not come forward to make the accusations, which were discovered during an investigation, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. His name was withheld.
Baker was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on the new charges, which include one count of oral copulation of a person under 18, one count of sexual penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object and three counts of sodomy of a person under 18.
A call to Baker's attorney seeking comment was not returned.
Baker already has pleaded not guilty to eight acts of oral copulation involving a boy over a period ending in 1995 while the priest was living at a Pico Rivera rectory. Prosecutors contend he molested the boy for more than a decade, beginning at age 7. The charges carry a possible sentence of 19 years in state prison.
Baker's case is the latest involving allegations of clergy abuse that have tarnished the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest. On Dec. 1, the archdiocese said it would pay $60 million to settle 45 lawsuits by people who claimed they were abused by priests, but as many as 485 suits are still pending.
On Wednesday in Florida, a man who says a former Roman Catholic priest sexually abused him as a teenager sued the Archdiocese of Miami for at least $25 million, raising the number of lawsuits involving Father Neil Doherty to at least six.
The archdiocese said on its Web site that it was not aware of this newest charge "until after it was reported in the media." The statement said, "If the allegation is true, a great sin has been committed; such behavior is never acceptable for any member of the church."
Doherty's attorney, David Bogenschutz, did not return calls Wednesday.
Source: AP News
