SAINT PAUL, Minn. – After Reverend Joseph Jeyapaul denied knowing the 15-year-old Minnesota girl he is charged with raping, attorney Jeff Anderson released emails showing the extent of their relationship.
Anderson said Jeyapaul’s denial of even knowing the victim he is charged with raping, “a reprehensible act piled upon his disgraceful behavior involving a sixteen year-old child.”
Jeyapaul told CNN he vaguely remembered the emails when he was asked.
Jeyapaul, who is a Roman Catholic priest, fled the U.S. prior to being criminally charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl while he served a parish in Northern Minnesota.
He told the Associated Press on Monday that, concerning the victim he is charged with raping, he “did not know that girl at all.”
A series of emails were sent to a 16-year-old girl in September, 2005 from Jeyapaul after he had return to India. Shortly after these emails were found out by church authorities, Jeyapaul was sent a letter demanding he have no further contact with the girl.