A former pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, who was permanently suspended last week, will not face criminal charges over accusations of inappropriate conduct with minors after state police say their investigation determined no criminal acts had been committed.
After a year-long investigation that began in 2016, Kentucky State Police Post 16 in Henderson Public Information Officer Trooper Corey King tells the News Edge the investigation determined the inappropriate conduct didn’t meet the requirements of state law for Father Gerald Baker to be charged.
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According to the statement from the Diocese of Owensboro, the Diocesan Review Board said they found the accusations against Baker to be substantiated, and therefore Bishop William Medley permanently suspended Baker.Baker served as pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in 1989 and played an instrumental role in starting St. Luke Free Clinic in 1993. He left Hopkinsville in 2003 to serve as pastor at St. Ann Catholic Church in Morganfield, located in Union County. He served at St. Ann until 2012 when he left to pastor St. Mary of the Woods in Whitesville and St. John the Baptist in Fordsville.
Baker was suspended by the Dioceses of Owensboro in May 2016 amid accusations of inappropriate conduct with minors at which time Kentucky State Police and the diocese launched an investigation into the allegations.
Baker has been an ordained priest since 1983.
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