A Roman Catholic priest with ties to Texas and Louisiana abused his position of authority within the church to kill vulnerable men who fathered at least two children with the victims of his actions. He is facing criminal charges for allegedly pursuing sex with a woman, authorities said.
Shocking information about Anthony Odion was revealed during a bail hearing in Waco, Texas, on Tuesday. There, prosecutors charged him with multiple counts of sexual assault against women he was serving.
Mr. Odion requested that the $5.5 million bail on which he is being held be reduced. But the judge rejected the request after prosecutors established that Odion had communicated plans to flee to his native Nigeria if he was released, but at the same time offered the most evidence to date of the alleged double life he had cultivated. Broadcast a complete explanation.
Catholic clergy are required to abstain from sexual activity, so authorities are not concerned with Odion's biological fatherhood. Rather, they saw the children as evidence that Odion had a pattern of pursuing women he met in his role as a priest, which is a felony in Texas.
DNA evidence presented at the hearing showed that Odion was “the father of the offspring; [a] Sexual assault in the United States… perpetrated against known survivors. At a hearing Tuesday, prosecutors told Waco Police Detective Bradley DeLange, who has been investigating Odion for months, that the pastor and the alleged victim, who gave birth to one of his children, had had sex within the past calendar year. I asked him if he had done so.
“Yes,” Delange said. “They shared their pregnancy scare in June.”
Officials also mentioned a second child, fathered by Mr. Odion, who is a minor and the Guardian believes to be living in Nigeria. The two children, both under the age of 18, were involved in Odion's long-term ministry under the direction of Catholic church officials in Austin, the capital of Texas, and New Orleans, the most famous city in neighboring Louisiana, beginning in the 1990s. Born during my career.
Odion, 55, is charged with a total of five counts of sexual assault in the first degree and two more similar counts of sexual assault in the second degree in connection with three separate women. There is. Delange testified that he had identified nine of Odion's alleged victims in the United States and abroad, and two others by Tuesday morning. There is no indication that any of the three women at the center of the accusations against Mr. Odion are the mothers of his children.
Nevertheless, prosecutors and police believe that Odion's descendants are related because the mother of at least one of the children gave birth during the period in which Odion allegedly committed the crimes he is charged with. .
If convicted of any of the first-degree charges, he could face life in prison.
escape plan
While part of Tuesday's hearing focused on Mr. Odion's children, other parts dealt with his ability to flee to Nigeria, and therefore beyond the reach of Waco authorities, if given the chance. .
During the two-hour hearing, Delange testified under oath that Odion was building a luxury home in his native Nigeria and that he could flee if granted bail. He also has deep funds, including funds from followers who still believe in his innocence, that can help those who may be on the run from the law. But Texas law enforcement officials said in a separate statement that exactly how Mr. Odion amassed his wealth is the subject of a parallel financial crimes investigation. On Tuesday, many of the priest's past followers packed the courtroom gallery.
Delange said Odion considered himself high up in the Catholic hierarchy and was able to raise large sums of money directly from his followers by claiming healing and spiritual guidance. Prosecutors asked detectives whether they had coerced believers to donate to defense efforts. Delange said the situation was an “abuse of faith”, although she said she was not forced to do so.
Some of Mr. Odion's followers acknowledged that his aid was certainly not coercive, saying they could and would be willing to donate up to $25,000 to cover the priest's bond. He testified Tuesday.
“He is a dear friend of mine and my family,” said Rose Ann Vanek, who testified that she would support him financially if he were released. During her testimony, she smiled at Odion, who smiled and nodded back. “Thank you, Dad,” she said. “We love our father.”
Mr. Delange also testified that Mr. Odion made surveillance calls to his followers from prison, telling them that if he was able to escape, he would flee to Nigeria. Delange cited the phone call and said that Odion's doctrine of practicing non-Catholic religious beliefs, which he preaches to his followers, predicts the impending apocalyptic “coming of the apostle” in Africa. He added that
Mr. DeLange testified that Mr. Odion would eventually speak directly to Mr. Donald Trump and advise him on the end of it.
Odion, a naturalized American citizen with a U.S. passport, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Odion's lawyer argued on Tuesday that his client cannot flee the country because his Nigerian passport has expired. Judge Thomas West rejected that argument and set Odion's bail at $5.5 million.
Not all of Odion's past followers who watched Tuesday's hearing in person were there to support him. Nevertheless, one courtroom spectator gasped upon hearing West's sentence. “are you kidding?”
Other avoidance actions
Odion's arrest earlier on Tuesday comes months after the Guardian published a report detailing previous allegations against the clergy, ranging from sexual coercion and unwanted touching to financial mismanagement. It was done. All came from women he met through his work.
According to a police affidavit, a woman walked into the Waco Police Department in March after the February Guardian report, claiming that Odion had sexually assaulted her in 2012.
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Delange's subsequent investigation showed that Odion presented himself as a spiritual advisor to women who helped them with their personal problems, especially marital problems, and used that intimacy to persuade them to have sex with him. Evidence has been found to suggest that.
He is suspected of having had a sexual relationship with at least one of the women he is accused of assaulting. As for at least one of the other victims, Odion allegedly persuaded her to submit to anal sex with her husband despite her faith-based and conscientious objection to sexual intercourse; He is said to have made her tell him all about it to satisfy him. sexual interest.
Additionally, detectives who reviewed Odion's messages via texts, emails and social media said they discovered digital images of child abuse in his possession. However, they have not pursued formal charges related to these findings, choosing to focus on the sexual assault aspect of the case.
Under Texas law, authorities will indict Mr. Odion regardless of how many years have passed since his alleged crimes, even though not all of them resulted in charges, due to the large number of whistleblowers involved in the case. He acknowledged that.
Police arrested Odion on July 16 at his home in the planned area of Ave Maria, Florida. He has not been able to post bail since then.
Mr. Odion was ordained a Catholic priest in the diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, in 1993. In 2006, then-Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin, Texas, allowed Odion to move to the clergy level and work there.
Odion was granted permission to work within the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 2015, after apparently studying in Rome, according to church documents obtained by the Guardian. Aymond was appointed archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans six years ago. At St. Anthony of Padua Church in the community of Lulin, Louisiana, Mr. Odion cultivated a large number of believers by hosting special masses, after which some of the members claimed to have recovered from serious illnesses.
Diocese of Austin officials said they notified Odion in 2019 that the diocese had “received complaints regarding…” [his] Behavior with adult women.” The organization later stated that Odion was not authorized to “engage in priestly ministry in the Diocese of Austin, even temporarily,” and that “any violation of these restrictions would require public disclosure.” “There is a possibility that it will happen,” he said.
The notification to Mr. Odion therefore suggests that the church chose to keep the accusations against him secret from its members at the time.
Church officials in Austin said they immediately notified church officials in New Orleans about the allegations regarding Odiong. But after one of Mr. Odion's accusers reported him to church officials in New Orleans and expected him to be suspended from at least his ministry there, lawyers for the archdiocese issued a letter by November 2023. , and claimed that there were “no other similar allegations” against Mr. Odion. Odion said, according to a copy of the correspondence obtained by the Guardian.
Nevertheless, just a month later, the archdiocese abruptly removed Mr. Odion from public office, with the organization removing him from his post at St. Anthony's Church in Luling city due to allegations of cheating with multiple women. He finally announced that he was forced to do so. At the time, Odion falsely tried to convince parishioners that he was removed from office for opposing efforts supported by Pope Francis to make the church more welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community.
Additionally, Deragne testified on Tuesday that Odion was allegedly ordered to return to Uyo diocese, although he did not comply with the order at the time of his arrest. He also said that within days of his arrest in Florida, Odion called his parishioners and instructed them to empty one of his personal bank accounts and to pack up all their belongings and ship them to Nigeria. Ta.
The recipient of the Archdiocese of New Orleans' November 2023 letter regarding Odion and her attorney, Christy Schubert, filed an unresolved lawsuit the group initiated in 2020 after years of battling mostly clergy-related lawsuits. requested damages from church officials as part of its bankruptcy protection lawsuit. Abuse that victimizes children.
The bankruptcy sparked revelations that the church operated a child sex trafficking ring in New Orleans, committing “widespread abuse of minors dating back decades” that was illegally concealed. This sparked a Louisiana State Police investigation (which is still ongoing). Statements sworn by authorities.
