FUGITIVE PRIEST IS ARRESTED

PFMLIT CLERGY, General, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF TRUST, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS ON THE RUN, SEX OFFENDERS ON THE RUN - NABBED

John Steven Rabideau, a 44 year old Catholic priest who had been on the lam for more than seven years amid child-sex allegations in Michigan, has been arrested in Colombia and returned to the United States for trial.  He was arrested as he tried to enter Colombia from Ecuador and is being held in a Miami-Dade County, Florida jail pending extradition next week.  He is accused of sexually assaulting three boys in 1985 and 1987.  The alleged crimes went unreported until 1998.  Rabideau faces one count of first degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, and six counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, each with a 15-year maximum.

(Bay City, Michigan)