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Luis Jesus Barajas appears in court and in a booking photo, inset on the right. (Screengrab via WKYC; Westlake Police Department)
A former priest who was formally relieved of his clerical status decades ago was recently arrested for allegedly molesting a 15-year-old cancer patient during an unsanctioned blessing ceremony in Ohio.
Luis Jesus Barajas, 76, stands accused of one count of gross sexual imposition, according to the Westlake Police Department.
Authorities say it’s not the first time the former man of the cloth has been accused of child sexual abuse – not by a long shot.
The underlying alleged incident occurred on Oct. 10, when the defendant was driven to a home in Westlake – a large suburb of Cleveland located in Cuyahoga County – in order to pray with the girl at her family’s request because she was suffering from cancer and her concomitant chemotherapy treatment, police say. The girl’s family had previously heard about Barajas because he was visiting the area and performing spiritual ceremonies, primarily for Spanish speakers there.
“According to witnesses, Mr. Barajas touched the juvenile inappropriately during the blessing,” a police press release reads. “Barajas used blankets and clothing to hide some of his actions from witnesses but his touching made several uncomfortable.”
From the beginning, people at the ceremony were taken aback.
“Several of the witnesses who watched the blessings indicated that nothing seemed right about it,” Westlake Police Capt. Gerald Vogel said in an interview with Cleveland-based NBC affiliate WKYC.
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The defendant, as it turns out, was sanctioned by the Catholic Church over 30 years ago for alleged sexual improprieties with children.
Police noted that Barajas was ordained in 1982 and preached for years in Pennsylvania – before he was given money to return to his native country of Colombia under a cloud of suspicion.
“Luis Jesus Barajas, a laicized priest with the Order of the Most Blessed Trinity, was assigned to the Diocese of Harrisburg from March, 1987 to November, 1989, to minister to the Spanish-speaking communities in the Lebanon and York areas,” the Diocese of Harrisburg said in a statement provided to WKYC. “In 1989, concerns regarding Barajas were reported to the Diocese, at which time his faculties to exercise his priestly ministry in the Diocese were removed and he returned to Colombia. The Diocese released Barajas’ name in August 2018 and his case was detailed in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report regarding clergy abuse.”
Recently, Barajas returned to the U.S. and is believed to have been in the Lake Erie region of the Buckeye State for the past several months where he was providing blessings and other religious services. Known as a traveling “retired priest,” the defendant had been staying with various families in adjacent Lorain County.
“We do have a strong concern that there are other victims,” Vogel told the TV station. “It seems that’s this guy’s whole life – what he’s been doing, again, since the eighties.”
Barajas was also previously arrested in Virginia in 2019 on a charge of felony misconduct with a minor, police said. According to Cleveland-based Fox affiliate WJW, authorities ultimately declined to prosecute the former priest on that earlier allegation.
On Oct. 20, a Catholic priest alerted law enforcement to the “unconventional” blessing he witnessed 10 days prior. On Oct. 23, Barajas was arrested at a residence in Elyria – a medium-sized city some 23 miles southwest of Cleveland – without incident, police said.
On Monday, Barajas was assessed a $250,000 bond. He was also determined to be indigent and assigned a court-appointed attorney.
