Michigan: priest convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct against a child parishioner
Request a correction or replyRecord class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
Catholic parish priest
Organization
Archdiocese of Detroit
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
The victim was a child of the parish under the priest's pastoral care.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2023-03-01 · conviction and sentence
Michigan state court; prosecuted under the Michigan AG's clergy-abuse initiative. Fr Joseph 'Jack' Baker, pastor at several Metro Detroit parishes, was convicted in October 2022 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct — penetration of a child under 13 — and sentenced in March 2023 to 3–15 years with lifetime sex-offender registration. The conviction arose from the Michigan Attorney General's statewide clergy investigation, which has produced diocese-by-diocese reports (Saginaw: 37 priests and a deacon; Grand Rapids: 51 priests, 152 victims) and convictions in 9 of 11 charged cases.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- pastoral access to a child of the parish
Cited record
Sources
- official prosecuting authority conviction release Michigan Department of Attorney General, clergy-abuse initiative releases on the Baker conviction and diocesan reports (2022–2023).
The prosecuting authority's record of the conviction, sentence, and the wider investigation's outcomes.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.michigan.gov/ag/initiatives/catholic-church-clergy-abuse Corpus classification: official-prosecuting-authority; evidentiary role: conviction-release.
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts
- 2018 · Harrisburg, PA, USA PA grand jury: 301 priests, 1,000+ child victims documented ('weaponized' faith)
- 2009 · Dublin, Ireland Ryan Commission: abuse 'endemic' in Catholic-run institutions (state inquiry)
- 2021 · Paris, France CIASE/Sauvé Report: est. 216,000 abused by French clergy since 1950
- 2019 · Vatican City McCarrick: ex-cardinal found guilty by Vatican canonical process, laicized
- 2010 · Oregon City, OR, USA Beagley faith-healing death: parents convicted (criminally negligent homicide)
- 2014 · Philadelphia, PA, USA Schaible: 3rd-degree murder, second child dead of untreated pneumonia
- 2001 · London, UK Victoria Climbié: murder convictions; possession belief; Laming Inquiry followed
- 2012 · London, UK Kristy Bamu: kindoki 'deliverance' murder convictions (30/25-yr minimums)