EX-PRIEST ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF NEW MOLESTATION ALLEGATIONS.

Byline: Daily News

A former Antelope Valley priest, against whom child molestation charges were dropped two months ago as the result of a court decision, has been arrested again on new allegations dating to the early 1990s.

Michael Wempe, 63, who in the late 1970s and early 1980s was assigned to St. Mary's Parish in Palmdale and taught at Paraclete High School in Lancaster, was arrested Wednesday after new allegations were made following the original charges' dismissal.

The man whose allegations led to the arrest told detectives he ``was too ashamed to come forward earlier because he believed that Wempe would be convicted and sentenced on the testimony of the other victims,'' said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Scott of the Family Crimes Bureau.

Wempe was arrested Wednesday at his home in Seal Beach, deputies said.

The alleged victim said he was molested beginning at age 11 in Wempe's car and at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where the priest was a chaplain, officials said. The man told detectives his parents had considered Wempe a family friend at the time that the alleged attacks were occurring, Scott said.

Wempe's attorney, Leonard Levine, said the new allegations came as a surprise.

``These allegations have never surfaced before,'' Levine said. ``We question why they have surfaced at this time. We have seen none of the allegations yet, so we can't comment further until we know what the charges are and what he is accused of.''

Levine said Wempe denied any wrongdoing in the past and anticipates he will plead not guilty in the new case.

A Cedars-Sinai spokesperson said there were no indications the hospital had ever received complaints about improprieties or misconduct by Wempe, who worked there for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and not as a hospital employee.

``Based on the information we have, we don't believe any medical center patients were involved,'' said Grace Cheng, vice president of public relations.

Wempe came under investigation for the earlier allegations in 2002. That year, two brothers filed a lawsuit saying he had molested them in the 1970s and 1980s while he was assigned to St. Jude's Church in Westlake Village, Sacred Heart Church in Ventura and at St. Mary's in Palmdale.

Wempe was charged last spring with 42 crimes involving those two and three others, including a then-Paraclete High School student, from 1977 to 1986.

The 42 counts against Wempe were dismissed in July after a Supreme Court decision rejected as unconstitutional a California law that allowed the prosecution of old sex crimes.

Wempe had remained an active priest until March 2002, when he was forced to retire. The brothers' lawsuit said archdiocese officials were told before 1979 that Wempe had acted or attempted to act sexually inappropriately with the two brothers but only moved him from parish to parish.