Bishop convicted of hit-and-run killing

A bishop has been convicted of a hit-and-run killing after a court in Phoenix heard he drove on after his car had hit a 43-year-old-man.

Bishop Thomas O’Brien, who was head of the Roman Catholic diocese in Phoenix, is believed to be the first Roman Catholic bishop in US history to be convicted of a felony.

The 68-year-old bishop, who said he thought he hit a dog or was struck by a rock, could be sentenced to anything from probation to three years in prison on the charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

No sentencing date has been set.

O’Brien, who appeared in court each day wearing his clerical attire, showed no emotion after the verdict was read.

Some relatives of the dead man, Jim Reed, and the bishop’s family cried after the verdict.

O’Brien’s sister, Jeanne Dearing, said she was devastated by the verdict. “He’s innocent and God knows that.”

Reed’s family said the decision was just.

O’Brien led the Phoenix diocese’s nearly 480,000 Catholics for 21 years, but stepped down in June after he was charged in the crash.

“I’m saddened by the tragedy that this is and I feel … a great deal of empathy with Bishop O’Brien,” said Bishop Thomas Olmsted, O’Brien’s successor.

The resignation came after two weeks of turmoil following an announcement by prosecutors that they had reached an immunity deal with O’Brien that would spare him indictment on obstruction charges for protecting priests accused of child molestation.

Reed was drunk and jaywalking on the night of June 14 when O’Brien hit him on his way home from celebrating Mass, leaving a massive crack in the windshield and Reed lying in the street. O’Brien then drove the two miles back to his house and parked the Buick in his garage.

The bishop said he heard a loud crash but never saw anyone in the road, and the defence contended that dim lighting, headlight glare and the victim’s dark clothes made him hard to see.

Had he seen the pedestrian, O’Brien testified: “I would have stopped because that’s the human thing to do. I couldn’t imagine not stopping.”