Police: Priest hired killer for accuser

DALLAS, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A Catholic priest in Texas charged with the 2008 sexual assault of a teenage boy has been charged with trying to hire someone to kill his accuser, police say.

The Rev. John M. Fiala, 52, who was charged with the sexual assault in a rural parish west of San Antonio, was in Dallas County Jail accused of one count of solicitation to murder and two counts of aggravated sex assault of a child, the San Antonio Express-News reported. He was being held in lieu of $700,000 bail.

The newspaper said Fiala was indicted last week in Howard County on the sexual assault charges. With those two counts, the priest now faces six charges involving the teenager, who was 16 at the time of the alleged assault.

Fiala allegedly negotiated a murder for hire with an undercover officer at the priest's residence in Garland, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. Police were tipped off by a neighbor when Fiala allegedly tried to hire the neighbor to kill the accuser, the Express-News reported.

A lawyer for the boy filed a lawsuit last spring over the sexual assault allegations. Besides the priest, the suit also named the archdioceses of San Antonio and Omaha, and Fiala's religious order, the Robstown, Texas-based Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity.

The archdioceses and the order deny they covered up Fiala's record of sexual abuse. Former San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez and Fiala's religious order removed the priest from active ministry in October 2008 when told of the police investigation.