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April 16, 2010

Rossmoor home of defrocked priest searched as part of countywide sex registrant check

A Rossmoor reader told me that just before 5pm [Thursday], there was what appeared to be police activity at the Rossmoor apartment building which is home to Stephen Kiesle, the 63-year-old former priest who is now at the center of the latest round of questions over the Vatican's handling of the clergy sex abuse scandal.

"There were at least five police vehicles, most unmarked cars, but all working together. Those cars contained at least nine law enforcement types," the resident said. "Several police personnel went in and out of the building, emerging with what looked like computers and data in large rolling briefcases or containers,
the kind lawyers come to court with the day of trial. These containers were loaded into the police vehicles."

Walnut Creek Police Capt. Timothy Schultz confirms that law enforcement visited Kiesle's home. In fact, his was one of many homes visited by local law enforcement Thursday afternoon in what is a countywide “sex registrant check."

Kiesle, who left the church in 1987, is listed as a registrant with the state Department of Justice. Kiesle was first sentenced in 1978 to three years' probation after being  convicted of tying up and molesting two young boys in a San Francisco Bay Area church refrectory. In 2002, Kiesle was arrested and charged with 13 counts of child molestation in the 1970s. He pleaded no contest in 2004 to a felony charge for molesting a young girl in Truckee in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison.

Schultz says the check was conducted as part of the S.A.F.E. (Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement) Task Force concept that law enforcement agencies in Contra Costa County have utilized for several years," he says, adding that the original idea for this concept was proposed by a Walnut Creek police detective.

Sgt. Kelly Challand, who heads the task force, said the parole search of Kiesle's home, by a coordinated multi-agency effort, found that Kiesle was in full compliance with sex offender laws: Challand said: "There was nothing indicated which would require a follow-up investigation on his part. He is on active parole and will continue to be monitored by the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Patricia and Stephen Kiesle own at least two homes in Contra Costa Co. They paid 520,000.00 for their Rossmoor property in September 2008 while he was in prison. It's unclear from the Assessor's records how long she's owned the home near Amber Swartz Park in Pinole. I don't know if they still own the house in Truckee where he molested his niece. He's a retired Chevron computer consultant that worked in San Ramon. The Catholic Church has paid out more that 10 million dollars, so far, to his victims. How do these people still have assets?

Anonymous said...

I heard a resident at Rossmoor had said, "well Rossmoor is the safest place someone like Kiesle could be - it full of old people". I am surprised this resident has not considered the grandchildren and other young family members that visit their relatives living in Rossmoor. And what about the Jewish Community Center (right around the corner from Rossmoor) with its daycare facility and activities for children. The Tice Creek Valley area has at least one other day center for children (on Olympic), an elementary school (off of Newell), etc.

Anonymous said...

His wife, Pat, used to work at a temporary job placement agency, where she would book him as Santa Claus for local malls. In the years that he didn't work as Santa, he told me that he would borrow the suit to entertain the children of family/friends. I suspect she didn't know...

Why doesn't someone post his most recent picture, prominently displayed in the Megan's Law registry (search for Kiesle, Stephen)?

At least grandparents in Rossmoor could keep an eye out on their grandchildren around him!

He is the master manipulator -- he loves the mind games ... and from news reports, more than that.

What a legacy he has left. He needs Jesus. Only Jesus can save him!