Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

Two years after pleading guilty to molesting a student, a priest and former teacher at an all-boys Catholic high school in Detroit is facing new legal troubles — this time for allegedly videotaping hockey players while they were changing in a locker room.

Richard James Kurtz, 69, a Jesuit priest and former chemistry teacher at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, was charged in U.S. District Court Monday with producing, possessing and transporting child pornography. The charges stem from crimes he allegedly committed 15 years ago, during the 1998-99 hockey season at U-D Jesuit.

It's not his first run-in with the law.

Kurtz was convicted of molesting a U-D student during a trip he took with the boy to the Air Force Academy in Colorado. While the trip happened in 2001, he wasn't arrested or charged until a decade later, while he was living in Chicago. He pleaded guilty in 2012. He did not get prison time but is currently serving a 10-year-to-life term of supervised probation in confinement in Missouri.

U-D fired Kurtz in 2001 after learning of the student's accusations and reported him to Child Protection Services.

"James Kurtz has had no affiliation with U of D Jesuit since that time," U of D Jesuit President Karl Kiser said in a statement Monday. "The safety and well-being of our students is of primary importance to all of us at U of D Jesuit. We do not tolerate any form of abuse at the school, and we absolutely do not support any efforts to protect abusers. We want to communicate our unwavering support for victims of abuse, no matter when it may have occurred."

According to the U.S. Attorneys office, Kurtz was arrested in Missouri on Monday and is expected to be extradited to Detroit soon to face charges that could send him to prison for up to 30 years.

There was no attorney of record listed for Kurtz in court documents.

The locker room videotaping allegations come five years after similar allegations surfaced at Grosse Pointe South High School, where former ice hockey coach Robert Bopp was accused of using a hidden camera to videotape players in a locker room during the 2008-09 season.

That information surfaced in an investigation that resulted in Bopp pleading guilty in 2009 in federal court to child pornography charges involving other underaged boys, not any of the Grosse Pointe students.

Kurtz, formerly of Clarkston, taught chemistry on and off for 25 years at the 137-year-old Catholic high school in northwest Detroit, starting in 1970.

News of Kurtz's arrest inspired members of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), including Matt Jatczak, who was outraged by the latest allegations against Kurtz.

"That's very devious. It's sickening," he said of the allegations that Kurtz videotaped hockey players in the locker room. "And now these hockey players know what happened. I can only imagine what they're feeling. They're probably angry and shocked and upset. And hopefully they're not scarred by what this man has done."

SNAP, meanwhile, is calling on anyone who may have information about Kurtz that could help authorities to come forward.

"This is no time for complacency," said SNAP director David Clohessy, a survivor of priest abuse who disclosed his story in 1990. "Often times victims and witnesses and whistle blowers assume that when a sex offender is charged, it's a done deal. But in our experience, we've seen time and time again sex offender clerics hire top notch lawyers ... and get off completely."

Here, according to court records, is what led to the latest federal charges filed against him.

After Kurtz was arrested in Chicago in 2011 on molestation charges stemming from the Colorado trip with a student, two Jesuit priests discovered evidence of possible child pornography in Kurtz's belongings in Chicago and his home in Clarkston.

The two priests turned the information over to the FBI, which conducted its own investigation. That probe linked Kurtz to the U-D Jesuit hockey team's locker room, and child porn in his home.

According to court records, Kurtz videotaped high school hockey players changing in the locker room after games during the 1998-99 season. The FBI also discovered that Kurtz was transferring other child pornographic material from Clarkston to Chicago, and possessed other child porn at his home in Clarkston.

"Certainly, when news like this comes out it's very troubling," said Joe Kohn, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit. "He's not our priest, but certainly it's troubling what we're hearing."

Kurtz worked directly for the Jesuit religious order, which runs the Detroit high school, not the Archdiocese.

In a statement today, the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesuits said: "The Province has cooperated fully with the authorities in this case and it remains committed to justice and healing for those involved."

The religious order also noted that Kurtz has been restricted from public ministry since 2001, when the sexual abuse allegations arose.

Kurtz is charged with producing child pornography, which carries up to 30 years in prison if he is convicted; transporting child pornography, which carries up to 20 years in prison, and possession child pornography, which carries up to 10 years in prison.

Contact Tresa Baldas at 313-223-4296 or tbaldas@freepress.com.