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The Rev. Robert L. Schaeufele, charged with capital sexual battery, is the first bay area priest arrested since the scandal began.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, WAVENEY ANN MOORE
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 1, 2002
A Catholic priest who served 27 years in the Diocese of St. Petersburg has become the first priest in the Tampa Bay area to be charged with sexual assault since a national scandal engulfed the church earlier this year.
Police arrested the Rev. Robert L. Schaeufele, 54, in a Detroit suburb at 9 p.m. Thursday after prosecutors filed two capital sexual battery charges against him earlier in the day. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors said he assaulted two 11-year-old boys while he served at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Pinellas Park from 1983 to 1985.
Schaeufele is being held without bail in Wayne County, Mich., awaiting extradition to Florida.
Church officials say it is the first time a priest has been arrested for abusing a minor in the five-county diocese since Robert N. Lynch became bishop in 1995.
Schaeufele is one of three local clergy members being investigated by Pinellas-Pasco prosecutors and is among dozens of priests nationally accused in recent months of sexually abusing minors during the 1970s and 1980s. He might be the first one arrested in Florida this year.
Schaeufele has lived with a niece in Livonia, Mich., since he resigned from a Pasco church in mid April after being confronted with abuse allegations. Schaeufele, dressed in a bright yellow T-shirt and black sweat pants, offered no resistance when Livonia police arrested him on a Pinellas warrant.
Police said he hung his head without speaking as they led him in handcuffs to jail.
"We're committed to making sure that this never happens to anyone else," said Brian Gruber, 29, one of a group of six men, including four former altar boys, who approached prosecutors to accuse the priest of abusing them at Sacred Heart. "That is our first goal.
"Without a doubt, we would like for him to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," said Gruber, who is not one of the two victims Schaeufele is charged with abusing. Those victims could not be reached for comment.
Prosecutors in Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe's office said they would seek a life sentence if Schaeufele is convicted on charges that each carry a minimum 25-year term.
It's not known if the priest will waive extradition. If he does, he could be returned to Pinellas within days. If Schaeufele battles to stay in Michigan, it could take weeks.
Schaeufele's Pinellas attorney did not return a call for comment. Jail officials in Michigan said Schaeufele was not available for an interview.
"We've had to charge doctors and lawyers and clergy before. You take no great thrill in it. But we don't shy away from it either," McCabe said on Friday. "It indicates our opinion that something pretty terrible happened."
In a statement, Bishop Lynch encouraged anyone who believes that Schaeufele harmed them to contact law enforcement.
"If Father Schaeufele is found guilty of these charges," Lynch said, "he should be held fully accountable by the criminal justice system."
Prosecutor Tim Hessinger, heading the investigation for McCabe's office, said diocese officials provided Schaeufele's Michigan address after McCabe's office requested it in the last several weeks.
But the diocese has refused to provide information about an interview church officials conducted with Schaeufele when the priest was confronted with abuse allegations in April.
Diocese attorney Joseph DiVito last month said Schaeufele admitted that he "had made mistakes early in his priesthood and had crossed boundaries concerning sexual misconduct with minors."
The diocese and Schaeufele say any conversation the priest had with church officials is privileged and not subject to release even to prosecutors.
McCabe, however, said the privilege is meant to protect conversations involving spiritual counsel, not the church's investigation about the abuse of minors. He said he would seek a court order to get information about the interview.
"If it's part of an investigation by the diocese as opposed to someone seeking counseling, I think we should get it," McCabe said.
Nonetheless, McCabe said the diocese has been extremely cooperative with his office's investigation. He does not view the church's refusal to turn over materials regarding discussions with Schaeufele as an effort to obstruct.
"I think the church perceives that they have an obligation to assert the privilege," said McCabe, saying it's possible that the church simply followed Schaeufele's instructions.
Church spokeswoman Mary Jo Murphy declined to discuss the issue, referring questions to Schaeufele's attorney.
The diocese, responding to a subpoena, recently provided to McCabe's office the names of at least two more people who recently stepped forward to accuse Schaeufele of abusing them years ago. The alleged victims reported the abuse in the past month.
Hessinger said prosecutors have not interviewed these people, and he doesn't know whether Schaeufele would face more charges.
One problem with such old cases is the statute of limitations.
As in a murder investigation, prosecutors face no time limit to charge someone in cases involving the most severe sexual abuse of minors younger than 12. But other victims who have stepped forward were older than 12 when they say they were abused, which rules out charges being filed, McCabe said.
Schaeufele, who served in nine different parishes within the diocese during his career, stands 6-foot, 3-inches and weighs well more than 300 pounds. He is described by some who knew him as a jolly man who enjoyed candy.
"He was like a big kid," said Pinellas Park council member Ed Taylor, a member of Sacred Heart. "Just a big, happy-go-lucky kind of guy."
-- Times researcher Catherine Wos contributed to this report. Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at (727) 892-2283 or moore@sptimes.com