Ex-priest who admitted abuse released from Illinois prison

CHICAGO (AP) — A defrocked Chicago priest who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing children was released from an Illinois prison last month and is now back living in the city, a state agency says.

The Illinois Department of Human Services confirmed that Daniel McCormack was released Oct. 7 from the state's Treatment and Detention Facility for sex offenders.

McCormack, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to sexually abusing five children while he was a priest at St. Agatha’s parish, has since registered as a sex offender with the Illinois State Police and is listed as living in Chicago's Near North neighborhood, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

An internal report by the Archdiocese of Chicago found 30 “substantiated” claims of abuse at the hands of McCormack.

A Cook County judge ruled in 2017 that McCormack is a sexually violent person who should remain indefinitely at the state facility in the Schuyler County city of Rushville.

McCormack remained there after serving his five-year sentence in 2009. But this May, an Illinois First District Appellate Court panel overturned the judge’s decision. The appellate court found that prosecutors failed to explain why McCormack had a substantial likelihood of reoffending.

Shortly after the appellate court’s decision, the attorney general’s office said it planned to bring McCormack’s case before the Illinois Supreme Court. A spokeswoman for state Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Tuesday that the high court denied a petition seeking to reverse the appellate court’s decision.