Zacharias
File photo | The Lima News
TOLEDO — A jury was seated and opening statements from attorneys were presented Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio in the trial of Michael Zacharias, a former priest charged with sex trafficking offenses.
Testimony in the trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday morning in the courtroom of Judge Jack Zouhary.
A federal grand jury 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.
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.
