Detroit Priest Sentenced to 12 Years In Prison For Child Pornography

A Catholic priest who was also a high school chemistry teacher was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to transporting child pornography to Chicago, USA Today reported. Richard James Kurtz, 70, was dismissed from the University of Detroit Jusuit School in 2001 when a 16-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault on a trip to Colorado. The family didn’t pursue charges at the time, but an investigation was opened in 2011 and Kurtz was convicted and placed on probation. Following that incident, several people came forward and disclosed other instances of sexual misconduct by Kurtz. Kurtz taught chemistry on and off for 25 years in northwest Detroit, and according to investigators, secretly recorded video of high school hockey players while they changed in a locker room in the late 1990’s. Kurtz’s collection of child porn was discovered in 2011 by priests who were packing his belongings at former residences in Michigan and Illinois. The priests observed material containing images of underage boys, and turned over the evidence. FBI investigators found more than 2,300 images of child pornography on computer media, floppy disks, printed pictures and photographic paper. News Sources: USA Today