Zacharias
TOLEDO — A February trial date for former priest Michael Zacharias on charges related to the alleged sex trafficking of adults and minors has been vacated and rescheduled for May 2 in U.S. District Court for the Northern Ohio.
A federal grand jury initially indicted Zacharias in August 2020 on one count of sex trafficking of a minor, two counts of sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud or coercion, and seven counts of sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud or coercion. Five counts pertaining to the trafficking of an adult were dismissed by prosecutors in August of 2021.
Zacharias had been scheduled to stand trial in federal court beginning Feb. 6.
He had been pastor at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Findlay since 2017 at the time of his arrest and had previously served as pastor at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Van Wert, where at least some of the sexual acts allegedly took place, according to the federal indictment.
A defense motion filed Dec. 20 asked the court to dismiss Count 5 of the superseding indictment — a charge of sex trafficking which alleges acts that reportedly took place between June 2, 2012 and Dec. 31, 2013 — because those dates are beyond the time limitations allowed under state law.
The federal government asked the court to reject the motion because the statutes under which Zacharias has been charged do not include a five-year statute of limitations, prosecutors argued.
