Priest Faces Charges In Nassau Sex Abuse

By Chau Lam, Staff Writer
Originally published in Newsday, May 16, 2001

A Catholic priest charged in Suffolk with sexually abusing a boy was arraigned yesterday on additional sodomy charges of engaging in sex with the same boy in Nassau, prosecutors said.

The Rev. Michael R. Hands, 34, was arraigned on three counts of third-degree sodomy, charging him with having sex with the 15-year-old boy at the priest's living quarters in St. Raphael Rectory in East Meadow between July 2000 and January, said Rick Hinshaw, a spokesman for the Nassau district attorney's office.

Hands, who wore beige pants and a short-sleeved shirt, was released in the care of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, whose representative told First District Court Judge Valerie Bullard yesterday that Hands will return to court tomorrow for a conference.

Bullard did not set additional bail for Hands, whose family and an unnamed person posted the $125,000 cash bail set by a Suffolk judge last week.

As he left the Hempstead courthouse yesterday, Hands cried and hugged his parents, who flew from Florida to be with him, said Hands' attorney, Peter M. Rubin of Rockville Centre. Hands and his family declined to comment yesterday.

Hands' release had been delayed as the court waited for Msgr. Francis Caldwell to arrive to take custody of him. Caldwell told Bullard that Hands would stay with him at the Rockville Centre rectory. After the court conference, Hands would be sent to a church-run retreat in Larchmont and then to St. Luke's Institute in Silver Spring, Md., for a psychiatric evaluation.

Hands is accused of molesting the boy over a 1 1/2-year period, beginning when he was 13 years old. Suffolk police began to look into the matter after the boy told his parents, who called police.