If someone claims a Catholic priest molested him, do you assume it must be true?

2 Charged With Threatening Priest in Office, Church

Two relatives have been charged with repeatedly threatening a 73-year-old priest with violence and warning him that they would make allegations of "improprieties" against him if he didn't give them money, officials said Monday.

For weeks, Deandrea Little, 22, and Markquis Little, 20, followed the priest from his home to St. Michael Archangel Church and the parish's community center and threw rocks at the windows of his home, according to Cook County prosecutors.

The men were charged with attempted robbery, intimidation and stalking. Prosecutors said the suspects were related but did not elaborate.

The priest told police they began demanding money from him about four years ago and that he gave them more than $10,000 in increments of $10 or $20, according to a police report.

Prosecutors said the older Little walked into the priest's community center office last Wednesday, poked him in the forehead and said he would hurt the priest if he didn't give him money.

"We'll say you touched us, read the paper, they'll believe us," the police report quoted the older Little as saying.

Parishioners witnessed the incident, prosecutors said.

A day later, the younger Little followed the priest into the sacristy after Mass and demanded money, according to police and prosecutors.

The priest told police that the two have broken out windows at the rectory and have scratched and dented his car by jumping on it.

The South Side men were arrested Friday afternoon, police said.

On Monday, Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. ordered them held on $500,000 bail apiece. Family members declined to comment after a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.