LANSING, Mich. (WWJ) -- A former priest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is headed to prison after pleading guilty to four counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ontonagon County Thursday afternoon.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office announced Thursday Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty to the highest charge of CSC on four separate cases he faced. That resulted in Jacobs pleading guilty to three counts of 1st degree CSC and one count of 2nd degree CSC.
Jacobs is accused of committing numerous sexual abuse crimes in Ontonagon and Dickinson Counties when he was a priest there in the 1980s.
The AG’s office says Jacobs will serve between eight and 15 years on each count, which will run concurrently.
He will also be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. He’ll undergo sex offender counseling and be subject to lifetime electronic monitoring if and when he is released.
Jacobs also faces a fifth case in Dickinson County, where a similar plea agreement is planned. That hearing is set for May 3.
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All victims -- those involved in the charged cases and those who have come forward since -- have been told they can speak at Jacobs’s sentencing if they wish. A sentencing date is set for May 25.
Jacobs’s case has been part of an extensive investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s clergy abuse team.
“This plea agreement and subsequent prison time is the culmination of resolute work by our clergy abuse investigation team, but that work would not be possible without the courageous victims who came forward,” Nessel said in a statement. “This sentence will not erase the pain Mr. Jacobs inflicted on those who trusted him, but I hope our pursuit of justice can offer some sense of relief as their vulnerability led to this accountability.”
Two other former priests, Patrick Casey and Brian Stanley, have pleaded guilty in their cases that were taken on by the clergy abuse team.