Columbus, Ohio, Jul 13, 2009 / 20:47 pm
R. Eric McFadden, a former leader of several Democrat-leaning Catholic groups, has pled guilty to two counts of compelling prostitution for prostituting a 17-year-old girl on the internet.
Five other counts of pandering obscenity and promoting prostitution were dismissed.
McFadden, 46, was former director of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. He worked for Catholics for Kerry in 2004 and served as the president of Catholics for Faithful Citizenship in 2005. In 2006 he served as a spokesman for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and was an outreach organizer for Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
He had been accused of putting nude photographs of a girl on a website to promote prostitution. Police learned of the activity during an online sex sting.