Guilty on all counts

TOLEDO — A jury on Friday found former St. Michael Church Pastor Michael J. Zacharias guilty in federal court of all five counts of sex trafficking involving three victims. Zacharias, 56, wearing a suit and showing no emotion, was handcuffed behind the back by a U.S. marshal and led out of the courtroom. He could be sentenced in about four months, a source said. It appears he could be facing at least 10 years to life in prison on each of the two counts that he used force, fraud and coercion to get a minor to engage in paid sex acts. He appears to be facing a sentence of up to 20 years on each of the three convictions for using force, fraud and coercion to get an adult to engage in paid sex acts. Presiding over the trial in U.S. District Court, in Toledo, was Judge Jack Zouhary. Judge Zouhary was away on other business on Friday, so Judge James Knepp II presided over Friday's court proceeding.The jury reached its verdict Friday afternoon after over nine hours of deliberations, which began early Thursday afternoon. Zacharias preyed upon his victims' addictions to opiates. But he first appeared to them "as a trusted friend … a wolf in sheep's clothing," U.S. Trial Attorney Lindsey Roberson told jurors in her closing argument on Thursday. All three victims first met Zacharias while they were students at St. Catherine's School, in Toledo, in the 1999-2000 school year. Zacharias was a seminary student then and was assigned to work at the school and church as part of his training to become a parish priest. Two of the boys were brothers, in sixth grade and kindergarten, and a third boy was in eighth grade. Zacharias won the trust and confidence of the boys and their families, according to trial testimony. He preyed upon the boys' varying vulnerabilities and needs for a friend and mentor. In time, each of the boys became addicted to opiates. Zacharias maintained contact with them after he finished his time at St. Catherine's. He testified that he did not cause the victims to become addicted. But after having convinced them that he was their friend and mentor, he exploited their drug addictions to comply with his desires for sex, Roberson argued. The three victims did not consent to the sex, they complied because they feared that otherwise they would suffer excruciating harm from drug withdrawal, she argued. One of the victims complied at times because he feared that if he did not Zacharias would go after his younger brother for sex. Zacharias also told the three victims that if they told anyone about the activities they would be charged with prostitution and their reputations would suffer, she argued. The three victims were spiraled into ever-deeper humiliations, debasement and isolation. The victims who are brothers never discussed their circumstances with each other. Nor did they know about the third victim, and he was unaware of them. Zacharias was ordained as a priest in 2002 in Indiana, and served at churches in Mansfield, Van Wert, Fremont and Findlay before being arrested and charged by FBI agents in Findlay in 2020.