Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Wayne County, Michigan, USA · 2022

Michigan: priest convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct against a child parishioner

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic parish priest

Organization

Archdiocese of Detroit

Spiritual nexus

The victim was a child of the parish under the priest's pastoral care.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 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

Primary 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.

Related record

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