CNA reached out to Jackson’s lawyer, John Calcagni, for comment but did not hear back by time of publication. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office said a press release would be issued on Wednesday.
After Jackson’s arrests in Rhode Island in 2021, he was initially charged with both federal and state offenses, but the state charges were dropped as a procedural move in January 2022.
News of his arrest in October 2021 shocked many of his friends, supporters, and former parishioners, with many who saw Jackson as a holy priest rushing to his defense.
Under the terms of his release from federal court in November 2021, Jackson was allowed to return to his home state of Kansas to live with his sister while waiting for the charges to be adjudicated.
While in Kansas, an additional child pornography investigation into Jackson was conducted by a local police department. Jackson’s federal probation officer issued a petition to the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island alleging that the priest broke the conditions of his pretrial release while he was allowed to live in Leawood, Kansas, with his sister.
In the petition, Jackson’s probation officer, David A. Picozzi, said that the U.S. Probation Office in the District of Rhode Island was contacted by Overland Park Police Department Detective Christopher Moore on July 11, 2022.
Moore told the office that there was a search warrant issued for Jackson’s residence in Leawood “in response to a child pornography investigation in which Mr. Jackson was the primary target,” the petition says.
U.S. Marshals arrested him and brought him back to the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, where he has remained in custody.
A spokesman for the Overland Park Police Department told CNA in May that Jackson will be charged with a crime once the charges in Rhode Island are adjudicated.
A spokeswoman for the Johnson County District Attorney’s office in Olathe, Kansas, told CNA Tuesday that charges have not yet been filed.
A court document filed in December revealed that Jackson told authorities in his pre-sentence investigation interview that he was sexually abused as a child by the mother of another child in his Boy Scout Troop when he was 10 years old.
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Included in court documents is Jackson’s Aug. 6 written apology to his community, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.
“The vile sin into which I fell, and for which I am guilty, has caused immeasurable harm,” Jackson, the former pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Providence, Rhode Island, wrote.
“I have sinned against God, children, you, friends, and family, former students and former parishioners, and many others besides,” he wrote.
“I cannot repair this damage, but I must try,” he wrote. “I hope you will accept this apology. I’m sorry at a level I’ve never experienced before. I’m ashamed beyond any shame I’ve known.”
“I will be offering reparations, penances, and what good works I can for you, long after I am dismissed from the fraternity, and praying for you, in a reformed life, until my dying day,” he wrote.
Joseph Bukuras is a journalist at the Catholic News Agency. Joe has prior experience working in state and federal government, in non-profits, and Catholic education. He has contributed to an array of publications and his reporting has been cited by leading news sources, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Catholic University of America. He is based out of the Boston area.