{"id":3030,"date":"2026-05-26T17:39:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/05\/26\/trial-of-us-priest-charged-with-sexual-assault-begins-with-jury-selection-in-texas\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:39:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:39:42","slug":"trial-of-us-priest-charged-with-sexual-assault-begins-with-jury-selection-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=3030","title":{"rendered":"Trial of US priest charged with sexual assault begins with jury selection in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border-color:var(--article-border);background-color:var(--article-inner-background)\" class=\"dcr-wqti5a\">\n<div class=\"dcr-2zxs1v\">\n<div style=\"--grid-area:media\" data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tr9ye5\">\n<figure id=\"41c4a94d-5c85-41b3-9d67-d0a397c78bd5\" class=\"dcr-142siv7\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t8m8f2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Man in a white jacket\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe7926fb13982cb9376d9655f62d58c75cc34496\/247_404_2777_2220\/master\/2777.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"371.73208498379546\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><span class=\"dcr-v822l1\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-gup2gr\">\n<div class=\"dcr-fntg6k\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-1xgwz8b\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1os51wo\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Anthony Odiong after his arrest in Florida on 16 July 2024.<\/span> Photograph: Waco Police<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-13fd1ms\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"41c4a94d-5c85-41b3-9d67-d0a397c78bd5\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-n4pnam\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1hdkqum\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Anthony Odiong after his arrest in Florida on 16 July 2024.<\/span> Photograph: Waco Police<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:border\" data-gu-name=\"border\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:headline\" data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1aqe7zu\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-1k1a1x\">Trial of US priest charged with sexual assault begins with jury selection in Texas<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:standfirst\" data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-15in7js\">\n<p>Anthony Odiong, accused of sexually abusing three female congregants in Waco,faces a maximum of 20 years in prison per charge<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:body\" data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-kn9unn\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1a4fred\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-ydnaza\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-1c9t5u6\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The criminal trial of a Roman Catholic priest who ministered in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/texas\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Texas<\/a> and south-east Louisiana and was charged with illicitly abusing his status as a clergyman to pursue sex with spiritually vulnerable female congregants began on Tuesday with jury selection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Anthony Odiong, 57, faces charges of sexual assault in a state courthouse in Waco, Texas, involving three women whom he met while working there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He could receive between two and 20 years in prison \u2013 as well as a maximum $10,000 fine \u2013 on each charge if he is convicted at the end of a trial that could last a week or more.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"401de697-bc14-4b2f-b812-bd5b20ef183e\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-47fhrn\">\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-3 | 3\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-name=\"placeholder\" class=\"dcr-1kyw41h\">\n<div data-format-theme=\"5\" data-format-design=\"0\" data-format-display=\"0\" class=\"dcr-vshhea\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/23\/richard-trahant-new-orleans-clergy-abuse\" class=\"dcr-1m887w9\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-ut4tvs\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1h5b6rb\">\n<div class=\"dcr-169d7yv\">A New Orleans attorney was punished for exposing a clergy abuser. Here\u2019s what officials hid for years<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-eurq8n\">\n<div class=\"dcr-fkf7vq\">Read more<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The charges against Odiong were effectively prompted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/feb\/22\/catholic-priest-texas-anthony-odiong-new-orleans\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">a February 2024 report<\/a> from the Guardian about women who accused him of sexual coercion, unwanted touching and abusive financial control after meeting him in his capacity as a priest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A woman whom the Guardian did not interview subsequently brought a copy of the outlet\u2019s story on Odiong to Waco police and reported that he had sexually assaulted her in 2012. Investigators subsequently identified as many as 10 women whom Odiong was suspected of sexually preying on after meeting them over the years while ministering in Texas as well as the New Orleans archdiocese.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Prosecutors eventually managed to charge Odiong with exploiting three women\u2019s \u201cemotional dependency upon him as a spiritual adviser and engaging in sexual conduct with them\u201d because Texas law classifies that alleged conduct as a felony. Those women include the one who reported Odiong to Waco police; another whom the Guardian interviewed in its piece; and a third whom officers identified through messages recovered during the ensuing investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Many of those women\u2019s cases, including ones from Louisiana, did not yield criminal counts. But Waco prosecutors contend that his having more than four accusers allows them to legally charge Odiong with some of his alleged crimes no matter how much time had passed from when they purportedly occurred. He nevertheless argued on Tuesday that the state waited too long to file charges against him, opening the door for prosecutors to introduce hearsay testimony \u2013 inadmissible in most trial settings \u2013 about the number of accusers he has.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Court records filed in advance of the trial show prosecutors are ready to call a number of those accusers. They also areexpected to present evidence establishing that Odiong violated Catholic priests\u2019 promise to practice sexual celibacy by fathering at least one child with a woman who had been a congregant of his.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">That woman is not one of the three whom Odiong was charged with clerically abusing. Still, authorities argued that that particular child was living proof that Odiong had a pattern of pursuing female congregants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Authorities initially arrested Odiong in July 2024 over allegations of possessing illicit digital images of a disrobed child that they found when investigating the complaint against him prompted by the Guardian\u2019s reporting. But prosecutors ultimately never filed formal charges against him over those images.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Odiong\u2019s attorney, Gerald Villarial, recently argued in court that a congregant concerned about her sick daughter had sent the images to the clergyman, the local news outlet KWTX <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kwtx.com\/2026\/05\/24\/trial-disgraced-former-catholic-priest-anthony-odiong-begins-tuesday-waco\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">reported<\/a>. Villarial maintained that the photos were meant to display the girl\u2019s skin irritations and a possible rash, and the parishioner asked Odiong to pray for the child\u2019s healing, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Villarial moved for all evidence derived from Odiong\u2019s arrest on those images to be prohibited from being introduced at his trial. Yet the Texas state judge presiding over that case, Thomas West, denied that motion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">West also denied a separate motion to postpone Odiong\u2019s trial, which started late on Tuesday morning with the prosecution and the defense questioning a pool of 100 prospective jurors. Questions included whether those prospective jurors could be impartial despite media coverage of the case \u2013 and if they believed pastors could exploit adults\u2019 emotional dependency on them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Odiong has denied wrongdoing. He has been held in custody in lieu of $5.5m bail since his arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">After gaining ordination into the Catholic priesthood in his native Nigeria in 1993, Odiong made a name for himself through holding prayer services after which some attenders reported recovering from significant ailments. The naturalized US citizen transferred to a region including Waco in 2006 under the auspices of the then Austin, Texas, bishop Gregory Aymond.<\/p>\n<figure data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.NewsletterSignupBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\">\n<div data-name=\"placeholder\" class=\"dcr-ri3hap\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Odiong, among other things, worked in campus ministry at Baylor University in Waco and was the pastor of a church in West, Texas. He later evidently spent some time studying in Rome; and in 2015, he began working within the archdiocese of New Orleans, six years after Aymond had become archbishop there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">His main role in the New Orleans area was to be the pastor of St Anthony of Padua church in Luling, Louisiana. He also built a healing chapel next to St Anthony \u2013 named Our Lady of Guadalupe \u2013 after reportedly raising $600,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">No later than 2019, church officials in Austin said they suspended Odiong from being able to minister in their area over allegations of misconduct with multiple women. Austin church officials did not publicly announce that but said they notified their counterparts in New Orleans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Meanwhile, Aymond waited until December 2023 to similarly suspend Odiong from the ministry within the New Orleans archdiocese.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The archdiocese at the time cited misconduct with multiple women without revealing that they had been notified of the alleged behavior by diocesan officials in Austin at least four years earlier. Furthermore, Odiong\u2019s New Orleans suspension came around the same time he had publicly made a string of anti-LGBTQ+ community remarks to his congregation as international church leaders were seeking to make the faith more inclusive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Waco authorities criminally charged Odiong amid a debate within the Catholic church over whether to widen the definition of a vulnerable adult in the context of clergy abuse to encompass those who are under the spiritual authority of priests and then targeted for sexual contact by the clerics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The church presently only considers a vulnerable adult to be anyone who is older than 18 while having \u201csevere, intellectual, developmental or psychological disabilities\u201d. Sexual misconduct with vulnerable adults or children is clearly defined as clergy abuse under modern Catholic church policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Aymond <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/11\/new-orleans-archbishop-resignation-pope-leo\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">retired<\/a> in February, a couple of months after the New Orleans archdiocese and its insurers agreed to pay $305m to abuse survivors to settle a bankruptcy protection case that the organization filed amid the financial fallout of the global church\u2019s enduring clerical molestation scandal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">James Checchio, the former bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey, is Aymond\u2019s successor as New Orleans\u2019 archbishop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-qxqnsy\"><span class=\"dcr-1rq3vad\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-1dzx48f\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-1rrvs2w\">\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/texas\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">Texas<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/world\/catholicism\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">Catholicism<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/new-orleans-clergy-abuse\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">New Orleans clergy abuse<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-crime\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">US crime<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-nu129i\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Trial%20of%20US%20priest%20charged%20with%20sexual%20assault%20begins%20with%20jury%20selection%20in%20Texas&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/26\/texas-priest-anthony-odiong-abuse-trial?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-125qj9d\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-zhx6xs\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fmay%2F26%2Ftexas-priest-anthony-odiong-abuse-trial&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/may\/26\/texas-priest-anthony-odiong-abuse-trial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-14rjinq\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:right-column\" data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1h2hraq\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tn16h9\">\n<section class=\"dcr-1hko8ef\"><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anthony Odiong after his arrest in Florida on 16 July 2024. Photograph: Waco Police View image in fullscreen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}