A Catholic priest and pastor at St. Wenceslaus Church in Scappoose is accused of attempting to lure a 14-year-old girl into his car last month on a Vancouver street.

Father Michael T. Patrick, 57, is being held in the Los Angeles County Jail after being arrested as he returned from a trip to Australia. He's being detained on a Clark County arrest warrant.

The alleged incident occurred on a Northeast Vancouver street at around 5:30 on March 10. The girl told police she was walking west on Northeast 28th Street when the driver of a silver or blue car looked at her "strangely," according to a probable cause affidavit.

According the affidavit, the driver turned around and then came up behind the girl, passed her and then stopped the car in the bike lane. As the girl approached the car, the driver, she told detectives with the Vancouver Police Department, opened the driver's side door and said "Hey, get in."

She told the man, "No," and then continued walking toward her home at a faster pace. The driver then drove alongside the girl, "asking her several times if she wanted a ride," according to court documents. Each time, she said responded "No."

At one point, the girl told police, the man said "Come on, cutie."

That's when the girl ran to a nearby in-home daycare center where she called her mother to ask for help. She waited until the car pulled away and then ran home, where her mother called police.

The girl described the man as middle-aged who appeared to be of "middle Eastern" descent. He was heavy-set with with jowls, sideburns and chin hair, she said. She told police the man was wearing silver, wire-rimmed glasses and a collared blue jean shirt.

She also remembered the car's license number.

An officer went to the car owner's registered address when he contacted Patrick, who denied making contact with the girl.

A short time later, police brought the girl to Patrick's house to potentially identify him as a suspect. When asked if he was the man who talked to her on the street, on a scale of 1 to 10, she said "eleven."

On March 25, officers went to Patrick's house to serve a search warrant, but he was out of the country; a neighbor told police he had gone to Australia to visit his sister. Police entered the home through a sliding glass door, and seized a collared blue jean shirt as evidence.

According to court documents, Patrick faces one count of luring.

The Catholic Sentinel reported that Patrick has been with the Archdiocese of Portland since 1998. The Archdiocese could not be immediately reached for comment.