The Huffington Post
14 October 2013Posted: 10/14/2013 1:36 pm EDT | Updated: 10/14/2013 1:37 pm EDT
By Sebastian Murdock
A Cleveland, Ohio pastor was missing from Sunday’s Mass after allegedly soliciting sex from a park ranger.
Pastor James McGonegal was arrested Friday after a park ranger says he found the man masturbating in his car before offering to pay the ranger $50 to help him “get off,” Cleveland.com reported.
The park ranger, who was in civilian clothes, says he was waved over by the pastor. When he approached and asked what McGonegal was doing, the pastor told the ranger he was “cruising,” a common term used to suggest he was looking for sex, according to the incident report.
McGonegal, who did not know the man was a park ranger, was allegedly “actively rubbing his genitals with his hands over his pants” as the two men spoke. The pastor first expressed concern over the number of people who had been busted in the past for soliciting sex in the park, but then asked if he could pay the ranger $50 to help him “get off,” the report says.
The pastor is accused of then unzipping his pants and presenting his penis to the ranger. At that point, the ranger informed McGonegal that he was under arrest.
After placing the man under arrest, McGonegal allegedly told the ranger that he was HIV positive. A search of his car revealed “three sexual devices, commonly referred to as ‘cock rings,'” the report says. One of the rings was wrapped around a bottle labeled “Pig Sweat,” a harmful intoxicant that McGonegal said he would sniff to get a “buzz.” The ranger described the bottle’s logo in the report as having “a pig/man wearing buttocks-free chaps.”
McGonegal was being held in the Cleveland City Jail, but was released Saturday after posting bond, according to NewsNet5.
He is charged with soliciting sex after positive HIV test and indecent exposure.
McGonegal has been the pastor of St. Ignatius church since the 1980s, and has been a priest since 1971.
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Cleveland Catholic Diocese reviewing Father James McGonegal after soliciting sex allegations
newsmet5.com ABC
Posted: 10/14/2013
Last Updated: 15 October 2013
By: Jen Steer, newsnet5.com
CLEVELAND – A Cleveland priest has stepped down from his duties after being accused of soliciting sex.
Father James McGonegal was arrested on Friday after he offered a Cleveland Metropark ranger $50 for sex at Edgewater Park, a park spokeswoman said. McGonegal also admitted he is HIV positive, which increased the charges.
On Monday, the Cleveland Catholic Diocese said that McGonegal’s status is under review.
“Fr. McGonegal has stepped away from his duties at St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish to attend to his personal matters,” the diocese said in a statement. “Fr. Gary Yanus, priest in residence at St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish will temporarily attend to the sacramental needs of the parish community.”
The priest was held at the Cleveland City Jail until Saturday. He is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
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HIV positive priest, 68, ‘solicited sex from park ranger before pleasuring himself in public’
The Daily Mail Online (UK)
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By Louise Boyle
- Reverend James McGonegal, from St Ignatius of Antioch Church in Cleveland, allegedly offered an off-duty park ranger $50 to help him ‘get off’
- Police officers discovered sex aids and a bottle of chemicals labeled ‘pig sweat’ in the priest’s vehicle
A priest has been arrested after he allegedly solicited sex and was caught masturbating in a public park.
Reverend James McGonegal, from St Ignatius of Antioch Church in Cleveland, Ohio, is believed to have offered an off-duty park ranger $50 to help him ‘get off’ inside his SUV on Friday.
The 68-year-old priest, who later revealed he was HIV positive, then exposed himself to the man and began a sex act inside his vehicle in the parking lot.
Allegations:: Father James McGonegal, pictured center, has been arrested for soliciting sex in a public park. He is pictured on October 4 with members of his congregation during the ‘blessing of creation’
Father James McGonegal, 68, pictured in his police mugshot, was arrested this weekend for allegedly soliciting sex in a Cleveland park
McGonegal, who has been a priest for 42 years, was also found in possession of sex aids and a chemical isobutyl nitrate in a bottle labeled ‘pig sweat’ when police searched his Jeep.
He told police officers that he had bought the chemical, which had a picture of a pig/man on the bottle wearing chaps, at a sex store and that it gave him a ‘buzz’.
The priest was arrested on Friday and charged with soliciting sex while HIV positive, public indecency and abusing harmful intoxicants, according to cleveland.com.
He was released from Cleveland City Jail on Saturday on a personal bond. The priest has not said mass at his parish since the incident.
The incident took place on Friday at Edgewater Park around midday.
The priest has not said mass at his parish of St Ignatius of Antioch since his arrest on Saturday
The park ranger was not working at the time when McGonegal allegedly solicited sex from him and was not wearing his uniform.
When the priest was interviewed in jail, he told staff he was HIV positive.
The congregation at Sunday Mass offered up prayers for their ‘parish and pastor’, according to Cleveland.com, but members refused to comment on the allegations against McGonegal.
The Cleveland Catholic Diocese said: ‘Diocesan authorities have a policy of cooperating with civil authorities in these kinds of matters, and will do so in this matter.’
McGonegal is due to appear in court on October 15.
The priest was arrested at Edgewater Park in Cleveland, Ohio on public indecency charges
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Cleveland Catholic Diocese Issues Statement Regarding Arrest of Priest Caught Soliciting Gay Sex at Park
The Cleveland Leader
12 October 2013
On Friday afternoon, a Cleveland priest was arrested after he was caught soliciting a plain clothed ranger at Edgewater Park for sex. The Cleveland Catholic Diocese issued a very brief statement following news of Rev. James McGonegal’s arrest, which read:
“Diocesan authorities have a policy of cooperating with civil authorities in these kinds of matters and will do so in this matter.”
McGonegal, 68, allegedly signaled a man over to his car and offered him $50 for oral sex, not knowing that the man was a Metroparks ranger in plain clothes. He also admitted to authorities that he is HIV positive.
McGonegal is a priest at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church on Lorain Ave. in Cleveland, and now faces felony charges.
The diocese has not yet indicated what kind of actions will be taken against McGonegal by the church.
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HIV Positive Cleveland Priest Busted for Soliciting Gay Sex at Metroparks
The Cleveland Leader
October 11, 2013 – 8:37pm
Cleveland Metroparks rangers report that a Cleveland priest was arrested on Friday afternoon after he allegedly solicited gay sex at Edgewater Beach.
The suspect, Rev. James McGonegal, reportedly signaled a man over to his car and offered him $50 for oral sex. As it turns out, the man he signaled to his car was a ranger in plain clothes. McGonegal is also said to have admitted to authorities that he is HIV positive.
McGonegal, 68, is a priest at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church on Lorain Ave. in Cleveland that was originally slated by Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon to close. However, the church fought the decision from the start, and eventually was successful it its appeal to remain open.
McGonegal now faces felony charges.
Coincidentally, Friday was also National Coming Out Day.
Is this the first time Father McGonegal was out cruising? With the stash of ‘ equipment’ he had on hand, I rather doubt it.
No one in positions of authority in the Cleveland Diocese knew the double life this priest was leading? No one?
We shall see…
!!!!!…another script right out of the X-rated twilight zone!!!
How could you ever forget taking communion from his hand or confessing to him, then feeling guilty and accepting you needed to be penitent…to be absolved of your trespass…!!!
How can we ever take guidance from such broken rudders?…
Why is it so broken?…so extremely sad and incomprehensible!!
This is mud wrestling at its worst just trying to reconcile those extremes: the priest and the pervert!…and he is 68 years old!
Never mind the double life! This is cross breeding gone wrong!…
Scary!
jg
I hope the judge throws books at him. he had been my example for years. I want him be in a jail for a long time. what a shame for my religion. hope more cases come up possibly children he had kept’em quiet. he is a monster w/hiv . burn in the hell.