Two decades later, pastor charged with sexual assault of boy in Evanston hotel | Chicago Sun-Times

A former Catholic priest with Chicago ties is facing criminal charges for the first time, nearly two decades after he resigned from his post amid several allegations of child sex abuse.

The case that eventually landed 56-year-old Kenneth Lewis in the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Saturday in Chicago stems from a decade-old allegation of child molestation in an Evanston hotel room, according to a police source in the northern suburb.

In that incident, “Father Ken,” a former pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy on a trip in late July 2001, in a hotel at 1501 Sherman Ave., the Evanston police source told the Chicago Sun-Times. The hotel at that address is now the Holiday Inn Chicago North.
The boy’s parents filed a report with Tulsa police in June 2004, nearly three years after the alleged assault. Authorities in Oklahoma referred the case to Evanston police, and now, 14 years later, Lewis has been criminally charged in the case.

Two decades later, pastor charged with sexual assault of boy in Evanston hotel | Chicago Sun-Times

Ex-priest charged with 2001 sexual assault in Evanston | WGN-TV

A former priest has been charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in an Evanston hotel room nearly two decades ago.

Kenneth Lewis, 56,  was arrested after returning to the U.S. from Ecuador on May 9.

Lewis was never assigned to work as a priest in the Chicago area, but he attended the St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in suburban Mundelein between 1987 and 1991.


Ex-priest charged with 2001 sexual assault in Evanston | WGN-TV