Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Lansing, Michigan, USA · 2021

Michigan: priest Joseph Comperchio pleads guilty to sexual abuse of four minors

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic priest, Diocese of Lansing

Organization

Diocese of Lansing

Spiritual nexus

Access to the victims arose from Comperchio's position as a Diocese of Lansing priest.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2021-06-01 · guilty plea; sentenced; died in custody 2022

    Michigan circuit court (Michigan Department of Attorney General prosecution). Joseph Comperchio pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree and three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for abusing four minor children, some as young as nine, in the 1970s, and was sentenced to 12 to 30 years. He died of natural causes in 2022 while serving the sentence. One of nine convictions secured through the Michigan attorney general's clergy-abuse investigation.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • parish access to four children, some as young as nine

Primary record

Sources

official attorney general press release prosecution summary Michigan Department of Attorney General, 'Active Clergy Abuse Prosecutions Conclude with Sentencing of Ann Arbor Priest for Criminal Sexual Conduct' (Nov. 9, 2023).

Official AG summary of the clergy-abuse prosecution docket recording Comperchio's plea, sentence and death in custody.

state news roundup case status compilation 'Here's where the Michigan AG's sweeping Catholic clergy sex abuse investigation stands,' Gander Newsroom.

Case-status roundup confirming Comperchio's charges, plea and sentence.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases