"He was my boogeyman": Another accuser of Houston priest comes forward
Catholic dioceses across Texas Thursday released lists of priests they determined were "credibly accused" of abusing a child. A new survivor's allegations appear to be having an impact.
For years, Rev. John Keller presided over one of the largest and most prominent churches in Houston, the Prince of Peace. In a CBS News investigation in November 2018, John LaBonte accused Keller of molesting him as a child. So CBS took LaBonte's allegations to Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who is in charge of the Houston archdiocese, at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual meeting.
"That's not credible," DiNardo said at the time.
Seeing that moment on television disgusted Mark Quinn.
"I've never been struck by lightning but I think that's about as close as you get," he said.
Quinn said Keller touched him inappropriately too, when he was 8 years old. Now 50, Quinn said he'd kept his nightmare a secret all his life.
"He was my boogeyman and he's still in the ministry," Quinn said.
He decided to take his allegations directly to the church. Quinn doubted the church would fully investigate Keller.
"There's decades of history within the church at large where they have just refused to do the right thing," Quinn said.
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But then the church and DiNardo took Quinn by surprise, and they included Keller's name on their list released Thursday, in a category labeled "under investigation" and as a consequence removed him from active ministry.
"His name being on that list means a great deal to me. You just don't get to get off that easy," Quinn said.
All of this comes after Texas law enforcement raided the archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in November and is now poring over more than 30,000 of the church's internal, private documents. CBS News reached out to Prince of Peace church and Keller, and they said they have no comment.
