Former priest returning to court
Pre-exam conference to be held next week for alleged 1977 crime
A former priest charged with a sex crime that allegedly happened in 1977 in Farmington has been extradited from Illinois and arraigned in 47th District Court, where he will return next week for a preexam conference.
Gary Berthiaume, 78, was arrested Sept. 29 at his home in Warrendale, Illinois, and arraigned Monday on one count of second- degree criminal conduct for allegedly assaulting a young boy at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church. Bond was set at $50,000 cash/surety.
The charge, punishable by up to 15 years in prison on conviction, stems from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s allegations into sexual abuse within seven Catholic dioceses across the state.
According to a news release from the attorney general’s office, the victim was 14 at the time of the assault, which he said took place in August 1977 in the church rectory, where Berthiaume was a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit.
This isn’t Berthiaume’s first run-in with the law regarding sexual misconduct. In 1977, he was arrested for sexual assault of two children in Michigan and served six months in the Oakland County Jail. The church then transferred him to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio. He was moved again 10 years later to the Diocese of Joliet in Illinois.
Working for that diocese, Berthiaume reportedly was assigned to a retreat house for two years and then served as a hospital chaplain from 1990 to 2002. He was officially removed as a member of the clergy in 2007.
Berthiaume is one of 11 individuals with connections to the Catholic Church who have been charged with crimes by the Michigan AG’s office following the seizure of a vast amount of documents two years ago.
Another case tied to Oakland County involves Father Joseph “Jack” Baker who was serving as a pastor of St. Perpetua Catholic Church in Waterford when he was charged last year with first-degree criminal sexual conductsexual penetration with a person less than 13 years old. It’s alleged that the assault happened in a storage roomof St. Mary Catholic Church in Wayne in 2004. A trial is pending in Oakland County Circuit Court.