Eliscard: Father Jean-Level Eliscard

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Father Jean-Level Eliscard (Arraignment photo in Courier-Post, 30 November 1994)

Jean-Level Éliscard

Haitian,born priest.  Ordained 1992 in the Diocese of Les Cayes, Haiti.   Convicted 1995 for raping a 13-year-old parishioner in New Jersey.   Sentenced to three years probation.

According to one news report, when he was arrested in 1994 after a three month stay in the States he had ministered in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Canada.

It is unknown exactly when he arrived in Canada to serve as priest.  It look as as though it may have been after his three year probation was served back in Haiti under the watchful eye of his bishop?  It also seems that he was gone from Canada in 2004 after teh Dallas Morning ?

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08 June 1995: Probation for priest

30 November 1994:  Not guilty pleas entered by priest

30 November 1994:  Haitian priest denies molesting teenager

28 November 1994:   Priests sex charges shock Haitian enclave

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2011, 2010:  not listed in CCCD index

2004:  removed from Archdiocese of Montreal after archdiocese was  contacted by the Dallas Morning News.   A spokesman for the archdiocese apparently told  the newspaper that  Bishop of Cayes failed to tell the archdiocese about Father Éliscard’s conviction (M)

2003:  according to La Press article (scroll down) was hired as a hospital chaplain in Archdiocese of Montreal

2002:  address for Saint Alexandre Roman Catholic Church, St. Alexandre-d-Iberville, Quebec – he was probably assisting at the time.  The church is in the Diocese of Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec (Pastor Father Claude Boudreau) (CCCD)

?: somewhere prior to 2002 was assistant to Pastor Father Gérald Ouellette at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Granby, Quebec (Father Eliscard St Patricks in Granville Quebec)

1999, 1998, 1997:  not listed in CCCD index

June 1995:  Sentenced to three years probation (M)

30 November 1994:  “Not Guilty” plea (M)

November 1994:  arrested at Kennedy International Airport trying to flee the country  – had been serving as a visiting priest with  Trenton, NJ Haitian community (M)

1992: ORDAINED Diocese of Les Cayes, Haiti. (M)

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Pedophile priests: The escape

One obtained a prestigious position in Rome, the other failed in an orphanage in Malta. Here is the disconcerting journey of six churchmen accused of pedophile crimes.

La Presse

21 March 2017

Isabelle Hachey La Presse

[Unofficial  translation – original French text follows]

EXCERPT:


Jean-Level Éliscard (Montreal)

When the Archdiocese of Montreal hired Jean-Level Éliscard as a hospital chaplain in 2003, it  apparently did not know that the priest of Haitian origin had been found guilty eight years earlier of raping a 13-year-old parishioner in New Jersey. The father of the victim had caught the priest lying on his tearful daughter, her dress raised up on her thighs. While a criminal investigation was underway, Jean-Level Éliscard had tried to flee to Haiti, but had been arrested at the last moment at the New York airport. The Archdiocese of Montreal relieved the priest in 2004, after having been contacted by the Dallas Morning News. A spokesman for the archdiocese told the newspaper that Jean-Level Éliscard had been recommended by the Bishop of Cayes, who had failed to reveal the criminal past of the priest to his Montreal colleagues.

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prêtres pédophiles

La fuite

La Presse

21 March 2017

Isabelle Hachey La Presse

Jean-Level Éliscard (Montréal)

Lorsque l’archidiocèse de Montréal a embauché Jean-Level Éliscard comme aumônier d’hôpital, en 2003, il ignorait apparemment que le prêtre d’origine haïtienne avait été reconnu coupable, huit ans plus tôt, d’avoir violé une paroissienne de 13 ans au New Jersey. Le père de la victime avait surpris le prêtre étendu sur sa fille en larmes, sa robe relevée sur ses cuisses. Alors qu’une enquête criminelle était en cours, Jean-Level Éliscard avait tenté de fuir en Haïti, mais avait été intercepté in extremis à l’aéroport de New York. L’archidiocèse de Montréal a relevé le prêtre de ses fonctions en 2004, après avoir été joint par le Dallas Morning News. Un porte-parole de l’archidiocèse a indiqué au journal que Jean-Level Éliscard avait été recommandé par l’évêque de Cayes, qui avait omis de révéler le passé criminel du prêtre à ses collègues montréalais.

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 Priest Charged in Abuse of Teen Gets Probation

[Bishop Accountability website]

The Record

June 8, 1995

A Haitian priest who had been serving in the Trenton Diocese has been sentenced to three years of probation on charges that he had sexual contact with a 13-year-old parishioner.

Superior Court Judge Thomas DeMartin accepted a plea agreement Tuesday from the Rev. Jean-Level Eliscard, 31. Under terms of the agreement, Eliscard may return to his native country, but must be supervised by the bishop of Haiti.

Eliscard had been charged with attempted aggravated sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, endangering the welfare of a child, and child abuse. Under the agreement, he pleaded guilty to one count of criminal sexual contact.

The charges stem from a Sept. 27, 1994, incident when Eliscard allegedly visited the teenager while she was alone at her home in Hamilton and was molesting her when her father arrived and interrupted him.

Eliscard was arrested in November 1994 at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he tried to return to Haiti. Acting on a parishioner’s tip, police stopped Eliscard about an hour before he was to board a plane.

He may return to Haiti, but must be supervised by the bishop of Haiti. Monthly reports on Eliscard must be sent to the Mercer County Probation Department. Parish officials did not say whether Eliscard definitely would go back to Haiti.

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Not Guilty Pleas Entered by Priest Rev. Jean-Level Eliscard Is Accused of Molesting a 13-Year-Old Girl. the Judge Set Bail at $75,000

[Bishop Accountability website]

Philadelphia Inquirer

November 30, 1994

By Marjorie Valbrun

TRENTON — After listening to a graphic account of a local priest’s alleged molestation of a 13-year-old girl and a later attempt to flee the county, a Mercer County judge yesterday set bail for the priest at $75,000 and ordered him to stay away from the child and her family if he is released.

Judge Thomas DeMartin also ordered the Rev. Jean-Level Eliscard, a popular visiting priest at St. Francis of Assisi Church in downtown Trenton, to surrender his passport and all other travel documents.

Father Eliscard, 30, sat silently during the afternoon hearing, at which his attorney entered not guilty pleas to charges of aggravated attempted sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, child abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Supporters of the priest who filled two rows inside the courtroom winced as Assistant Prosecutor Loni Hand recounted the alleged attack.

“It’s all made up,” Marlene Saint-Juste said afterward. “We are 100 percent behind him.”

“I don’t believe it,” Ketlene Massenat said of the prosecutor’s statement. “She fabricated this story.”

Hand’s statements were the first to offer a glimpse of the official version of the unidentified family’s allegations.

Hand gave this account:

Around 6:30 on the evening of Sept. 27, Father Eliscard – as he had done on a number of occasions – called the girl’s home in Hamilton Township to speak to the girl’s 5-year-old sister.

The girl, who was home alone, informed the priest that her sister was out with her parents.

The priest responded that he would come over and await them, and a few minutes later he showed up at the family’s apartment door.

Father Eliscard asked the girl to show him the phones inside the house that her younger sister used when talking with him. The girl showed him the phone in the kitchen and then the one in her parents’ bedroom. Then the priest sat on the parents’ bed, asked the girl to sit next to him, and molested her.

When the girl’s father returned home around 6:50 p.m., he noticed the television set was on, but his daughter was not watching.

After hearing crying sounds coming from his bedroom, “he went to the bedroom and found the defendant on top of the victim with her hands pinned over her head,” Hand said. “Her dress was pulled up, and he was trying to pull down her panties.”

Hand said that Father Eliscard begged the father not to tell authorities and left the home. Two weeks later, Hand said, Father Eliscard returned to the house – presumably to see the 13-year-old girl – and promptly left when he learned the child’s mother was at home.

It was then that the child’s father told the mother about the earlier incident, and together they decided to go to church officials last Friday. Church officials in turn called police.

Father Eliscard heard that charges were pending, Hand said, so he decided to flee the country. He first asked a parishioner to drive him to Canada and then changed his mind and had her drive him to the airport instead.

He was arrested on Saturday at the John F. Kennedy International Airport after the parishioner called church officials and told them where to find the priest. When he was apprehended, he was in possession of an airline ticket to Haiti, his native country, police said.

Since August, Father Eliscard was a visiting priest at St. Francis of Assisi, where he said Mass in Haitian Creole and ministered to the church’s growing Haitian community. He was also involved with the Holy Spirit Church in Asbury Park.

He had been stranded in the United States when all international flights to Haiti were halted as part of an international economic embargo against the island nation. Parishioners said Father Eliscard planned to go to Haiti in January to seek permission from his home diocese to return to Trenton and minister in the area.

Father Eliscard’s arrest has rocked the city’s Haitian community, which had embraced him as one of its own. Since he joined the church, attendance by Haitian parishioners had jumped from 50 to 175.

“It’s a question of culture,” Saint-Juste said in trying to explain why Father Eliscard went to his accusers’ home. “This is our way of doing things in Haiti. The priests go from house to house to preach, to minister to the sick and old, to encourage people to come to church.”

But the very public manner of the arrest and the proceedings thus far – unheard of in Haiti – also contributed to the community’s outrage, which has been voiced angrily on Haitian radio stations here.

Local newspapers have covered Father Eliscard’s arrest extensively, and television images of the priest in handcuffs have been beamed from New York to Miami and even to Canada.

“In Haiti, when we have a problem, we handle it together, among ourselves,” Saint-Juste said.

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 Priest’s arrest stuns community

Montreal Gazette

28 November 1994

TRENTON, N.J. – In three months as a visiting Roman Catholic priest here, Jean Level Eliscard won the admiration of hundreds of Haitian parishioners, a church official said yesterday.

Those same parishioners, while shocked, are wholeheartedly supporting the Trenton Diocese’s decision to openly discuss sex charges filed Saturday against the 28-year-old Haitian citizen, said Msgr. John Dermond.

Eliscard, arrested as he attempted to return to Haiti, is accused of criminal sexual contact with a 13-year-old parishioner. Eliscard was on vacation in the United States when an embargo against Haiti prevented him from returning, said Dermond. During his stay, he performed his ministry at parishes in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Canada.

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Priest Arrested at Kennedy In Sexual Assault of Girl, 13

New York Times

 November 27, 1994

A Roman Catholic priest wanted in a sexual assault on a 13-year-old New Jersey girl was arrested yesterday as he prepared to board a plane for Haiti, officials said.

The Port Authority police arrested the Rev. Jean Level Eliscard, 28, about 10:40 A.M. at Kennedy International Airport, said Gwen Williams, a Port Authority spokeswoman.

Father Eliscard had a ticket for an American Airlines flight that was leaving at 11:30 A.M., she said.

Police in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, began investigating Father Eliscard on Friday in connection with the assault, said Lieut. Kevin Pollard of the Hamilton police.

Father Eliscard apparently realized he was a suspect and left town, but a tip Saturday morning from a member of his predominantly Haitian parish enabled the police to track him down at the airport, Lieutenant Pollard said.

Msgr. John Dermond, pastor of St. Francis Church in Trenton, received a call that Father Eliscard would be at Kennedy airport and notified the police.

“I guess I feel very sad for the priest,” Monsignor Dermond said in a telephone interview from the church. “I presume he’s innocent. The accusation is very serious.

“I’m doubly sorry that he didn’t stay here to face it,” said Monsignor Dermond, who with Father Eliscard is one of four clergymen at the church. “I am cooperating fully not just with the police department, but with the diocese here. We have a response team and a special set of standards for responding to these complaints.”

Father Eliscard was charged with aggravated sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child, Lieutenant Pollard said. He said that the incident happened inside the girl’s home on Sept. 27.

Under diocesan policy, Father Eliscard will not be allowed to exercise his ministry while the matter is pending, the monsignor said.

Father Eliscard was turned over to the Queens District Attorney’s office for arraignment as a fugitive, said Mary de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the office.

An extradition hearing will not be held before Monday, Lieutenant Pollard said. If Father Eliscard waives his right to extradition, authorities can take him into custody immediately. But if he chooses to fight extradition, he will be held in New York pending another court hearing, Ms. de Bourbon said.

Father Eliscard came to the St. Francis parish in late August. He had previously served in Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Canada, the monsignor said.

The charge involving the Haitian teen-ager came to light on Friday, when the girl’s father met with Monsignor Dermond, Lieutenant Pollard said. The monsignor, in turn, notified the police.

Father Eliscard was not called in for questioning and no warrant had been issued prior to Saturday morning, the lieutenant said. But Father Eliscard learned about the investigation on Friday afternoon when the monsignor brought it to his attention, the police said. The police realized Father Eliscard had fled when Monsignor Dermond phoned them Saturday morning with the tip.