A Kansas diocese priest was arrested in Kansas on charges connected to the alleged abuse of a 6-year-old child in a small Kansas town, nearly nine months after the case was first reported to authorities. Here is what the charges describe and how a civil claim can move separately from the criminal case.
Reviewed by Abuse Justice Center · Updated 2026-10-28
Figures drawn from Kansas Bureau of Investigation reporting and the Kansas diocese's public statement.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says the Kansas diocese priest, whose most recent assignment covered a trio of rural Kansas parishes, now faces three felony counts under the state's aggravated indecent liberties statute, a charge covering unlawful sexual contact with a child. The allegations involve a 6-year-old child in Kansas, with the abuse said to have occurred sometime between July and September 2025.
The county sheriff's office asked the KBI for assistance in mid-September 2025, and the arrest did not come until nearly nine months later, when the county Fugitive Warrant Unit took the priest into custody at his local home. He was booked into the county jail and is expected to be transferred to the county to face prosecution.
The Kansas diocese says it removed the priest from all public priestly ministry as soon as it was notified of the allegation, barring him from celebrating Mass, administering sacraments, or doing any pastoral work while the case proceeds. The diocese has stated it is fully cooperating with the sheriff's office and the KBI.
The diocese has also said the priest will remain removed from ministry unless he is fully cleared by civil, legal, and church authorities alike, language commonly used by dioceses to signal that a return to ministry is not being assumed while charges are pending.
Nine months passed between the initial report to law enforcement and this arrest, and criminal cases like this one can take considerably longer to reach trial or resolution. That pace is normal for criminal prosecutions, but it is not something a survivor or family needs to wait on before exploring a civil claim.
A civil case against a priest, or against the diocese for how it screened, assigned, or supervised him, uses a different, lower standard of proof than a criminal case and can proceed on its own schedule. You do not need a criminal conviction, or even for criminal charges to be filed at all, for a civil claim to be viable.
If your child, or you as a child, had contact with this priest, or with any priest or employee connected to the Kansas diocese, it is worth having a confidential conversation with an attorney who handles institutional abuse claims, even while the criminal case is still unfolding.
Kansas law on how long survivors have to bring civil claims for childhood sexual abuse can be more complicated than people assume, and an attorney can walk through your specific timeline, what records may already exist from the sheriff's investigation, and what a case against the diocese could look like.
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An arrest like this one often brings forward more than one family with concerns. Here is what to keep in mind if that includes you.
Abuse Justice Center is a free information resource, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. Ask any attorney how they charge before you agree. Need support now? The RAINN hotline is 800-656-4673, 24/7.
No. If your situation involves a different priest or employee connected to the Kansas diocese, or any other Catholic institution, you may still have a viable civil claim.
A civil claim does not have to wait for the criminal case to finish, and often proceeds on its own separate timeline.
Not necessarily. Many states, including Kansas, have provisions that extend how long survivors of childhood sexual abuse have to file, so it's worth checking rather than assuming your window has closed.
In many cases, claims are brought against the institution for how it hired, assigned, or supervised the accused person, which can be a stronger path than pursuing an individual with limited resources.