Ex-priest posts bond, leaves jail

Courier-Journal, Kentucky/July 9, 2007

Daniel C. Clark, a former Roman Catholic priest whose conviction on sexual-abuse charges was overturned by the Supreme Court of Kentucky, has posted bond at the Bullitt County Jail and is free, pending his new trial.

Clark posted a $10,000 cash bond about 5:15 this afternoon, according to the jail, which did not indicate who provided the funds or where Clark would be staying.

Clark is scheduled for a new trial on Oct. 30 on two charges of first-degree sexual abuse for allegedly molesting two boys between 1999 — when one was 8 years old and the other 9 — and 2002.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Kentucky overturned his 2003 conviction on those charges, ruling that the judge gave improper instructions to the jury and wrongly allowed a former victim of Clark to testify. Clark had served nearly four years in prison.

Clark, who was removed from the priesthood in 2004, was first convicted of sexual abuse and sodomy in an unrelated case in 1988.