Former Priest Returns To Michigan To Face Additional Sex Abuse Charges

WWJ News
March 14, 2020

https://wwjnewsradio.radio.com/articles/news/former-priest-returns-to-michigan-for-more-sex-abuse-charges

A former Michigan priest who relocated to New Mexico has returned to the state to face additional charges for allegedly sexually abusing children decades ago.

Gary Allen Jacobs was formally arraigned late Tuesday in Ontonagon County on two additional criminal sexual conduct cases that he reportedly committed in the 1980s while serving as a priest under the Catholic Diocese of Marquette in the Upper Peninsula.

Jacobs was originally charged in January on seven criminal sexual conduct charges in three separate cases that reportedly occurred in Ontonagon and Dickinson counties.

Since January, two new victims came forward making sexual assault reports against Jacobs, 74, now of Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the two cases, he is charged with three criminal sexual conduct counts stemming from incidents that reportedly occurred between the dates of Jan. 1, 1981 and Dec. 31, 1984 in Ontonagon County. 

The new charges include two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a child between the ages of 13 and 15, and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a child between the ages of 13 and 15. Both cases arise from his abuse of his authority status as the victims' priest.

Jacobs faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged.

Jacobs was arrested Jan. 17 in New Mexico on three previously charged cases of criminal sexual conduct. Rather than await extradition from New Mexico, Jacobs voluntarily returned to Michigan to be arraigned on the new charges. 

Jacobs is scheduled for a preliminary conference on March 23 and a preliminary exam on March 30. Both are in Ontonagon County District Court. The court denied Jacobs bond, but it will be addressed again at the preliminary examination.