Priest charged with molesting boy in 1990s

COSTA MESA, Calif., July 22 (UPI) -- A Roman Catholic priest in California has been charged with sexually molesting a boy in the mid-1990s.

The Rev. Denis Lyons, 75, was arrested Monday afternoon, The Orange County Register reported. He was taken to the Costa Mesa police headquarters, where he was booked.

The diocese of Orange County has paid $4 million to settle lawsuits by alleged victims of sexual abuse by Lyons, who was removed from ministry in 2002.

Lyons was charged in 2003 with molesting a teenager in 1978. That charge was dropped when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a California law allowing criminal charges to be brought in child molestation cases decades after the fact was unconstitutional.

The new charges involve a boy who was allegedly molested between 1992 and 1995 at St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa. Investigators say the boy was between 7 and 9 at the time.

Lyons was being held on $100,000 bail, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was arrested during a card game at a community center near his home in Seal Beach.