Michael R. Hands

Ordained: 1993

Father Hands resigned from ministry in 2002 after he pleaded guilty to sodomy charges relating to sexual abuse of a teenage boy. Hands was separately charged with sexually abusing a teenager in 2017 and was apparently found dead in his jail cell in February 2018 in what has been reported as an apparent suicide. He has allegedly been identified as ‘Priest W’ in a Suffolk County Grand Jury report, which maintains that a high ranking Diocesan official asked Hands to not talk about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of another priest, who was assigned to a “wealthy and influential parish.” A Newsday article has reported that the Diocesan official that spoke with Hands was Monsignor Francis Caldwell, and the priest that had molested Hands was Monsignor Charles “Bud” Ribaudo who served St. Dominic’s in Oyster Bay.