During the months of May and June, I spent quite a lot of time at church. Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic church, specifically, and the frequent visits to mass at the stately, pristine house of worship rekindled vivid memories of my grade school, St. Anthony’s, in Pocatello, Idaho.
But I visited Our Lady not for nostalgia but as part of a story I was working on that appeared in the August issue of Las Vegas Life magazine. The article recounted, updated and fleshed out the Father George Chaanine-Michaelina Bellamy incident that occurred in January. The episode came to be known as the “Fugitive Priest” saga, in which Chaanine allegedly attacked Bellamy (the entertainment director at the church who was also, it was alleged, the focus of the priest’s romantic intentions) by smashing a wine bottle across the back of her head and pummeling her before taking flight for six days. “America’s Most Wanted” joined law enforcement officers in three states (ours, California and Arizona) in pursuit of the wayward priest.
Chaanine was finally tracked down east of Arizona, and ever since has been in custody at the Clark County Detention Center. On Friday, Chaanine pleaded guilty to battery with a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm. Prosecutors dropped the attempted murder and sexual assault charges. Chaanine will be sentenced in November and could face up to 15 years in prison (he has been locked up at the Detention Center since February), or probation.
The criminal charges specify the bodily harm Chaanine committed in the attack, but that does not cover the emotional pain the incident exacted at Our Lady of Las Vegas Church, or the church’s school, or throughout the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas. Chaanine’s sensational case put Bishop Joseph Pepe, already an unpopular figure for many in the Diocese for a litany of controversies with priests and school officials, in an impossible situation. Because of the case’s potential legal ramifications (and because Bellamy’s attorney, the crafty Bob Massi, keeps threatening a civil lawsuit), Pepe long refused to discuss Chaanine and for months refused to visit the priest while Chaanine was in jail. (Pepe did eventually see Chaanine at least once in the Detention Center, about six months after he was apprehended.)
As I mentioned during the reporting of the story, if you’ve got John Walsh trying to find you and your own bishop avoiding you, you’ve got problems. But Chaanine’s guilty plea, in which he took responsibility for the attack but strongly denied sexually assaulting Bellamy, does close out the legal chapter of this sordid, distressing saga. There are three people in his world who have remained remarkably loyal: Melanie Thompson and Bill and Margo Russell. They have made it clear to me that they will continue to support Chaanine no matter how the criminal case plays out. He is lucky to have them around.
As for Bellamy, I expect her to resume her singing career in Las Vegas. That’s a comeback I’d pay to see.