Priest Who Tried To Hire Hit Man To Kill Sex Assault Victim Sentenced To 60 Years
Four years ago in western Texas, Catholic priest John Fiala initiated a non-consensual sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy. Fiala would drive the boy to his girlfriend's house and the pair would stop at a motel along the route, where the priest force himself upon his passenger. On other occasions, Fiala assaulted the boy in his car and in the rectory of his church. At one point, he made the boy perform sex acts at gunpoint.
From the Dallas News:
[The boy] never told his family about the attacks because he was so scared.“I felt like I was saving their lives,” the accuser, now 20, testified this morning in a Dallas County courtroom.
After numerous rapes and assaults, Fiala attempted to hire a Dallas hit man to kill his victim. The attempt failed, and the boy lived to testify against the ex-priest, who's now 53.
On Thursday, Fiala was convicted in a Dallas County courtroom of trying to hire the hit man. (Fiala still faces sex assault charges in Edwards County.) On Friday, Fiala was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He'll be eligible for parole in 2027.
From the Dallas News:
In closing arguments, prosecutors asked for a life sentence for ex-priest John Fiala. Defense attorney Rex Gunter said anything more than 15 years would be a "travesty."
I hope he has an awful hard time of it in prison.
Posted by: NullNaught | May 20, 2012 2:04:50 PM
Hopefully he'll be dead in prison LONG before he's eligible for parole.
Posted by: VoenixRising | May 20, 2012 2:08:09 PM
These are the priests who are so concerned about happy gay couples??
Posted by: mike128 | May 20, 2012 2:21:58 PM
The Catholic Church long ago lost any claim it had to moral legitimacy. Yet the church leaders keep talking, keep condemning us, keep hating on women, keep protecting abusers, keep attacking nuns for caring too much for the poor, etc. etc. As a former Catholic, all I can say to the people who still belong to the church is, "Run!!!!"
Posted by: kit | May 20, 2012 2:38:53 PM
He's a child molester, and tried to hire a hit man.
The lawyer thinks more than 15 years would be a "travesty".
Travesty mnight better be applied to his lawyer.
Posted by: Ben in Oakland | May 20, 2012 2:46:32 PM
Who needs Satan when we have the Catholic Church? They make him redundant.
Posted by: Johnson | May 20, 2012 2:49:05 PM
Ben In Oakland. I couldn't believe what the defence attorney said either.
Posted by: Sylvatica | May 20, 2012 2:53:45 PM
@Ben in oakland
I know how you feel - but you shouldn't. Defense lawyers are the good guys. Every once in a while they have to take on a case we wish they wouldn't; but we need them to do this so the justice system can work. If you one day need a defense lawyer, you are going to want them to advocate for you as rigourously as possible. This lawyer is doing the only ethical thing that he can. His client is the bad guy; the lawyer is a good guy with a distasteful job that has to be done sincerely and to the best of his ability or the system falls apart.
Please attack the perpetrator of the crime all you want, but a defense lawyer is in a way an innocent by-stander. He has to do what he does and say what he says.
If he starts advocating for his client outside the court by telling people he is not so bad or something, then I start to have a real problem with this. It is not a lawyers job to try cases in the court of public opinion and that is unethical. But I don't think this lawyer has done that.
Posted by: NullNaught | May 20, 2012 3:00:45 PM
I'm surprised the guy isn't a bishop yet. He has all the credentials for the job.
Posted by: stranded | May 20, 2012 3:30:47 PM
Maybe if he worked for a college and not the church there would be national outrage over this and the media would be making noise. Tens of thousands of children raped and the public tsk's tsk's, shrugs and shakes their head and moves on. Would any other business or institution in this country survive a handful of child rape cover ups, let alone thousands(!!) and still be allowed to exist?
Posted by: Michaelandfred | May 20, 2012 3:34:35 PM
Imagine if it had been Rabbis.
Posted by: scotsyank | May 20, 2012 4:41:55 PM
The Catholic Church is a criminal organization that should be indicted as such under the RICO laws.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | May 20, 2012 4:41:59 PM
Now, isn't time we started indicting and convicting some of those Roman Catholic bishops who enabled these pedophiles to be transferred from parish to parish.
Posted by: Continuum | May 20, 2012 4:48:24 PM
I hope the victim has a good therapist. He's going to need one.
Posted by: Devv | May 20, 2012 5:41:45 PM
@David Ehrenstein,
I actually agree with you.
=========
A 'man of the cloth' [or woman] of any denomination or religion who abuses the faith and respectability society and even the law places in them so egregiously must be harshly dealt with. Same goes for law enforcement officers, teachers [clearly there's a serious issue with pervs getting into teaching], doctors, scout leaders, coaches, etc.
===========
I was recently reading about the problem of abuse within the Hasidim Jewish community in NY, where the Brooklyn DA [Byrne] has refused to prosecute Rabbis for flagrant abuse because of political pressure. It's not just Catholics, but the R.C. Church is an enormous and wealthy/powerful institution.
Posted by: ratbastard | May 20, 2012 6:09:10 PM
So--based on current history, I assume the leadership of the Catholic Church will ignore this and continue to trash girl scouts and progressive nuns, right?
Posted by: Ty Nolan | May 20, 2012 6:10:50 PM
ANY GAY FOLKS STILL PUTTING MONEY INTO THE CATHOLIC OFFERING PLATES?
When Rome stops concentrating on Gays marrying, contraception and abortion, etc. you can think about it -- for now, you are feeding the hand that slaps you.
Posted by: Bob | May 20, 2012 7:39:36 PM
This sick f**k deserves nothing but
life-imprisonment in solitary confinement
with no contact with the outside world.
The Catholic Church should be directed by
the court to pay the victim at least
50 million dollars (after tax) and then
be forced to pay all the victim's court
costs, medical costs and any other costs
even remotely connected with the case.
he would periodically be made to watch
CGI generated videos of he himself as a
teen being sexually assaulted by himself
as an adult over and over again. No parole
of course. Waterboarding just for fun and if he actually drowns by accident, oops!
Posted by: BrokebackBob | May 20, 2012 8:00:15 PM
MICHAELANDFRED ,
You MIGHT have a point if the secular institutions you mention were making outrageous claims about being the ONLY, TRUE and HOLY representatives of GOD on earth as the Roman Catholic church does. But they DON'T. And YOU don't! And there's no evidence that the WHOLE educational system regularly hides any or all of its rotten apples, as the Roman Catholic church does.
Posted by: Rev. Ray Dubuque | May 20, 2012 9:49:23 PM
No no no BROKEBACK, that's all too nice...just chop him up slowly in one of those grocery store meat slicers leaving a hand free to instant-dial the hit man he really meant to contact so that the guy can come over and shoot him.
Posted by: UFFDA | May 20, 2012 9:50:32 PM
There is no such thing as an ex-priest. The Catholic church teaches that once a man is ordained a priest, he is a priest forever. So let them deal with this priest's evil deeds.
Posted by: andrew | May 20, 2012 10:32:31 PM
It's vile menlike this that make me wish for the return of public flogging
Posted by: Jay | May 20, 2012 11:13:27 PM
Why if he was sentenced to 60 years is he eligible for parole in 15 years? The justice system is a JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: andrew | May 21, 2012 12:31:27 AM
The real joke is that there are people who believe that this man can wave his hand in the air, spout some incantations and forgive sins!
Everyone who sits in a Catholic church is an enabler of this nonsense that makes priests into magical figures who think they are above the law.
Oh well, I suppose he can forgive himself.
Posted by: and yet again | May 21, 2012 12:47:36 AM
Religion is the enemy.
Religion is humankind’s greatest tragedy.
It’s time to tax the cults, secularize their schools, hospitals and universities and close their seminaries to prevent child abuse and rape.
It’s time to create laws and regulations that forbid priests, imams, preachers, rabbis, mullahs or pastors near children without armed guards being present to protect the children.
It’s time to arrest der Papenfuehrer, the college of cardinals, roman cult bishops and archbishops as accessories to rape and child molestation.
It's time to prosecute the roman cult as an international organization of child rapists and those who conspire to aid child rapists and to appoint a Special Prosecutor attached to the World Court to arrest and prosecute cult members and leaders who are accessories to rape.
It’s time to confiscate all the wealth of the roman cult to compensate their victims.
It’s time to get real and get mean.
Posted by: Bill Perdue | May 21, 2012 3:20:00 AM