CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP/WSPA) — A South Carolina priest who served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston is facing federal sex crime charges stemming from allegations that he abused an 11-year-old child.
A recently unsealed indictment shows 68-year-old Jaime Adolfo Gonzalez-Farias has been charged with aggravated sexual abuse of children, coercion of a minor and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Gonzalez-Farias was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Miami on Nov. 29. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston said his record didn’t raise any red flags before he was transferred to South Carolina from Chile.
Gonzalez-Farias is being returned to South Carolina to face the federal charges.
The Diocese of Charleston announced in July 2020 that Gonzalez-Farias would be administrator of St. Mark Church in Newberry, Holy Spirit Mission in Laurens, and St. Boniface Mission in Joanna. The diocese said that he would also be chaplain to Tyger River Correctional Institution and to Presbyterian College.
