Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A former priest who began his career in Livingston County has pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct charges in a neighboring county.

74-year-old Timothy Crowley pleaded guilty to two counts of 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct during a hearing held this week in Washtenaw County Circuit Court.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced “This plea will mark the ninth straight conviction by my department’s clergy abuse investigation team who have worked tirelessly on behalf of survivors in this state. We are grateful to have obtained some measure of justice on this matter and many others, further breaking down the walls of silence which often surround sexual assault and abuse.”

Crowley, who had been a priest at St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor, was arrested in 2019 in Tempe, Arizona. His case was initially dismissed after a judge determined the statute of limitations had expired but the Attorney General’s office prevailed in the Court of Appeals.

Crowley began his priesthood at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Brighton in 1979 as an assistant chaplain before he moved a year later to a Flint parish.

In June 1982 he transferred to a parish in Jackson, where the abuse is alleged to have begun involving a 10-year-old altar boy and continued until he admitted his actions to church leaders in 1993. After spending two years in a treatment program for priests, Crowley took a position with the diocese in Anchorage, Alaska. But he was removed from that position after his name was released in 2002 as part of a “zero-tolerance” policy adopted by American bishops. He was eventually defrocked in 2015.

There is no evidence Crowley committed abuse while he worked in Brighton.

A sentencing agreement calls for Crowley to serve five years of probation with the first year in jail, receive sex offender treatment, and register as a sex offender.

Sentencing is scheduled for November 8th.

The Department of Attorney General’s investigation into clergy abuse at Michigan’s seven Catholic dioceses began in 2018 with assistance from the Michigan State Police and other law enforcement agencies. The Department has issued criminal charges in 11 cases throughout the state and secured convictions in nine, delivering justice for 44 survivors. The remaining two defendants are pending extradition from India.