Michael Baker

Re "Ex-Priest Is Arrested in Abuse Case," Jan. 20 After reading time and again about priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese abusing children, I feel that the real culprit is Cardinal Roger Mahony. Over and over he has made poor choices to hide the dysfunctional side of the Catholic Church, hoping, and I'm sure praying, that if he sent these priests to other parishes, the problem would just go away. As a third-grade teacher, it is painful for me to think of all the innocent, vulnerable children who were repeatedly abused.

A former priest allowed to remain in ministry after telling Cardinal Roger M. Mahony that he had molested children was arrested Thursday on suspicion of committing lewd acts with a child in the 1990s, with deputies taking him into custody as he disembarked from a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. The arrest caps a four-year effort by prosecutors to build a case against Michael Stephen Baker, who authorities said ranks among the most prolific alleged abusers in the church.

A woman whose brothers were allegedly abused by a Los Angeles Catholic priest sued the church Monday, claiming she too was sexually molested as a child by since-defrocked priest Michael Stephen Baker. Identified only as Cynthia C., the woman alleges that Baker molested her after he admitted to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony that he had abused several youths.

Michael Stephen Baker, the priest who 17 years ago confessed to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony that he had molested boys, became the first Los Angeles cleric to be ordered to criminal trial since the Catholic Church's sex scandal broke last year. After a two-day preliminary hearing in Downey, a Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner ruled that there was enough evidence to try Baker on 29 felony charges of molestation. Baker left the ministry in 2000.

Stating that no profession is beyond the law, prosecutors charged two former Roman Catholic priests Thursday with multiple counts of molesting children in parishes where they served. The charges marked the first tangible results of a nine-month investigation of Roman Catholic clerical sexual misconduct in Los Angeles. Another priest--an elderly retiree reportedly on an overseas cruise--is being sought by authorities.

Here is the text of a letter Tuesday from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony to all priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. May 14, 2002 My Brother Priests: We have all been overwhelmed for many weeks now with the constant publicity highlighting the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests all across the country.

Closing a long chapter in an 11-defendant murder case, a judge Friday imposed sentences on two young men that could keep them in prison for the rest of their lives. Michael Baker, 22, was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison and Christopher Bryan Paonessa, also 22, was sentenced to 15 years to life for the 1997 slaying of Jason Shaw and the attempted murder of Shaw's friend, Daniel Parkison, during a Woodland Hills party.

Van Nuys jurors convicted two men of murder Friday but acquitted a third defendant of all major charges in the 1997 stabbing death of a 20-year-old man at a Woodland Hills party. "We're happy, but no matter what, it doesn't bring our son back," said Vicki Arriola of Canoga Park, whose son, Jason Shaw, was the victim. It was the second time Michael Baker, 22, and Christopher Bryan Paonessa, 21, were convicted of murder in the case. Earlier convictions were overturned by an appellate court.