WJU Professor Gets Sabbatical in the Pen

FAIRFAX, Va. (2/18/11) -- Rev. Felix Owino, WJU Associate Professor of Philosophy, was sentenced today to five years in a Virginia penitentiary after which he may be deported to Kenya.

The professor-priest-pedophile has been incarcerated without bond since his 7/8/10 arrest. On 9/29/10 he was convicted of aggravated sexual battery of an eleven-year-old girl.

His five-year sentence was suspended except for nine months, so he will remain in prison for two more months. Judge Michael F. Devine said the suspended sentence is required by Virginia sentencing guidelines.

After he is released, Owino will be on probation for five years. He will also be required to undergo alcohol counseling and sex offender treatment. Owino was also ordered to remain abstinent from alcohol, to register as a sex offender, and have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.

Owino is not a U.S. citizen, so he faces likely deportation to Kenya for the sex felony conviction. He has hired a separate immigration attorney to fight his deportation. Owino was ordained in 1992. He joined the faculty of Wheeling Jesuit University in the fall of 2008 and taught there until his incarceration prevented him from teaching last semester.

Owino did not exactly apologize when given the opportunity to speak before sentencing by Judge Michael F. Devine. Instead he quoted scripture, and called out, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, treat me like you do your highest servant.... Rescue me, God, my helper."

His attorney, Joshua Wilson, told the judge that Owino has a problem with alcoholism which began when Owino taught in Uganda, and continued during his two years at Wheeling Jesuit University. Judge Michael Devine responded that Owino’s problems extended beyond alcoholism and told Owino, “There is something terribly wrong with you that you need to get fixed, if it can be fixed.”

Wheeling Jesuit University has never issued a statement that Professor Owino has been fired, saying only that he “was on summer break” when arrested for the felony which WJU euphemistically called his “alleged behavior.” Could not WJU have at least referred to Owino’s grotesque felony as misbehavior rather than behavior? WJU’s attitude toward this sexual abuse felony has been severely assessed by David Clohessy’s 9/7/10 posting criticizing WJU’s “shamelessly self-serving news release” and WJU’s “herculean efforts to duck and dodge and distance themselves from a credibly accused predator.”

Credibly accused homosexual predator Thomas F. Gleeson, S.J., the WJU Trustee who cast the decisive vote to fire WJU’s last Catholic President, is still at large.

Mike Fahy
Quartus