FAIRFAX, Va. — The Rev. Felix Owino entered a guilty plea to aggravated sexual battery Wednesday in Fairfax County, Va., Circuit Court according to court officials.
He will be sentenced Dec. 17. He is
a former Associate Professor [sic] at Wheeling Jesuit University [where he had taught for two years] and also had a residence at St. Paul Parish in Weirton [WV, 30 miles north of Wheeling],
where he was an associate pastor. Associate pastor yes, associate professor not likely. Rather, instructor, as below.
He is being held at the adult detention center in Fairfax, will serve no more than five years in prison, could be (after that) deported to his homeland of Kenya, according to officials cited by the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail.
Prosecutors said Owino was drinking the night he inappropriately touched an 11-year-old girl in Herndon.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) wants to hold officials’ feet to the fire.
“We suspect there are other crimes for which Owino could be prosecuted and convicted, which would likely keep him away from kids and behind bars even longer,” SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris said in a news release.
SNAP is asking Wheeling Bishop Michael Bransfield and others to disclose any other allegations of sexual abuse made against Owino.
“Church and college officials have a chance to help law enforcement by aggressively seeking out others with information about Owino,” SNAP Director David Clohessy said in a news release. “It is their moral and civic responsibility to keep this child predator in jail and away from children.”
Later: Here’s a succinct, well-written account by Wash Post man Tom Jackman that adds key details:
A Catholic priest from West Virginia pleaded guilty in Fairfax County on Wednesday to aggravated sexual battery for inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl while he was visiting the girl’s Herndon home.
The Rev. Felix Owino, 44, was arrested after the girl told her parents of the incident in July, which occurred while Owino, the girl and others were watching a movie on television. Police described Owino as a family friend.
Owino, originally from Nairobi, Kenya, is a member of the Apostles of Jesus missionary congregation, an African congregation of priests and brothers. He was serving as a philosophy instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia and as an associate pastor at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church in Weirton, W.Va. [italics added]
Yet later, yet other accounts (from Mike Fahy):
Washington Post [as above]
A priest who lived at St. Bede Parish in Point Breeze [PA] on and off between 1997 and 2006 pleaded guilty Wednesday to molesting an 11-year-old girl in Virginia.
. . . . .
After learning about the criminal charges against Owino, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik sent a letter to St. Bede parishioners urging them to contact the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office and the diocese if they knew of anyone with whom the priest might have had inappropriate contact.
There were no accusations against Owino during the time he lived at St. Bede, and nobody came forward after the bishop sent his letter to parishioners, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Pittsburgh diocese.
He spent a good deal of time in Pittsburgh:
Owino, who is a native of Nairobi, Kenya, lived at St. Bede from September 1997 to May 2001 and again from September 2003 to January 2006, while attending graduate school at Duquesne University. He earned a master’s degree in philosophy in 1999 and a doctorate in philosophy in 2005, according to school officials.
He confessed to the judge:
Prosecutors said the Rev. Felix Owino was drinking the night he inappropriately touched an 11-year-old girl.
“I did what they said,” Owino told a Fairfax County, Va., judge in a soft-spoken voice.
. . . . . .
Prosecutors said Owino was watching a movie at the family’s home when he moved to the back of the room next to the victim and rubbed the girl’s hands and feet. He then touched her in inappropriate places and told the girl, “Do not tell.”
The child told her mother, and the mother kicked Owino out of the house and ordered him to stay on the steps until police arrived. Prosecutors said Owino admitted he touched the girl and told police he’d not done anything like that before.
Prosecutors said the victim’s family accepted the plea deal, and victims’ advocates said families usually do that to protect their child from going to court.
Although Owino made a plea deal with prosecutors for a maximum of 5 years, the judge made it clear the decision is ultimately up to him. He could reject the plea bargain out and give Owino the maximum sentence of 20 years.
Owino could also be deported because he’s not an American citizen.
Yet later:
This brave little girl is to be commended for doing the right thing by immediately telling her mom. Then her mom did the right thing by calling police.
Now hopefully others, who have been harmed by Owino, will also speak up and contact police. This predator priest needs to be kept in jail and away from kids.
— Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511, snapjudy at gmail dot com
Very important observation.
Blithe Spirit 
the is no way in which a normal person will support the action of father Felix given his status as a priest and as a proffessor, the action discredits all that can be good about him.
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but also this world is more of the negative than the positive, we must understand the background we come from ,,, let me ask who in this world including the pope has never done any immoral act, if scientists could discover the instrument to see that,,, no body could be guilty, p’ple make mistakes ad sh’d be advicesed,, ur sins are there coz not yet got,, her mum even may be more sinful than the father,,,,,,,,, myopic mind onl interested in negatives why not also appreciate the positive ad put it in papers….. for moses we know u as sinful on women of kenya, if got also u will answer.. nameless fighter
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