A defrocked Catholic priest who was convicted of child molestation nearly 20 years ago remains in Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office custody after allegedly striking and killing a fellow Walnut Creek retirement community resident while driving under the influence.
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Walnut Creek police arrested Stephen Kiesle, 75, on Saturday for driving under the influence and vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. Kiesle, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 for sexually abusing a girl at his Truckee vacation home in 1995, is being held on $250,000 bail at the Martinez Detention Facility, according to sheriff's records.
Kiesle struck Curtis Gunn, 64, and wife Laurelyn Gunn, 63, as they were walking back from a trivia night in the Rossmoor, a retirement community in Walnut Creek. Laurelyn Gunn told Rossmoor.com and The Daily Beast that Kiesle's car jumped the curb and hit the couple, and the Walnut Creek Police Department said a man was transported to a nearby hospital where he died of his injuries.
The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office didn't respond to KCBS Radio's request for confirmation prior to publication that the coroner’s division identified Gunn as the victim. Officials told the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday that Gunn was the man killed.
Police said Kiesle's car was flipped over on its side when officers arrived on the scene. The Walnut Creek Fire Department needed to remove Kiesle from the vehicle, according to officials.
Gunn's widow told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that Kiesle was on the couple's trivia team on Saturday, and she wasn’t aware of the former East Bay priest's history.
"We're a community of grandparents," Laurelynn Gunn told the outlet. "And that means there are grandkids around. And to have a known pedophile here, is not sitting well."
Kiesle's residence is listed on the California Megan's Law website, a consequence of his 2009 release from the 2004 conviction. He previously served three years of probation after pleading no contest in 1978 to misdemeanor charges of tying up and molesting two boys at Our Lady of the Rosary in Union City.
Kiesle also had 13 counts of child molestation – which stemmed from allegations in the 1970s – vacated in 2003 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of California law that extended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse.
In 1987, Kiesle left the priesthood, six years after he initially applied and two after then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger directed Oakland Bishop John Cummins to "submit incidents of this sort to very careful consideration, which necessitates a longer period of time."
Ratzinger eventually became Pope Benedict XVI, and The Associated Press in 2010 obtained the Cummins letter and others which showed that the future pope could've been complicit in keeping Kiesle in the church, despite requests from Kiesle and the Diocese of Oakland to remove him.
Ann Peterson, a spokesperson for Rossmoor and the Golden Rain Foundation, a nonprofit that provides facilities and community services to Rossmoor residents, told KCBS Radio that Kiesle moved to Rossmoor in 2010 after he was released from prison. His wife had already lived at the residence for two years prior to Kiesle moving in.
It's unclear if Rossmoor management was aware of Kiesle's history, both as a registered sex offender and defrocked priest.
Peterson said that because Rossmoor is 100% independently owned, there is no vetting of the residents who live in the community. She did not say directly if management was aware of his past.
When asked how widespread the knowledge of Kiesle's history was within the community, Peterson responded that "he was active in some clubs in Rossmoor and honest with their members about his past." She also added that "he didn’t hide his past from the community or the clubs to which he belonged," and that as a registered sex offender, he is listed on the Megan’s Law database, so it "wasn’t a secret that he lived" at Rossmoor.
However, it remains unclear and Peterson did not say directly how many members of the community knew about Kiesle's past. She said that since they're an independent living community, there is no mechanism for them both to conduct background checks on residents or disclose information to other residents.
"The Board of Directors for the Golden Rain Foundation offer their condolences to the wife and family of Rossmoor resident Curtis Gunn," Golden Rain Foundation President Dwight Walker said in a statement. "On behalf of the Board. I offer our deepest sympathies to the Gunn family and their loved ones. We share this moment of grief with the entire Rossmoor community."
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