Father Russell Gerald Appleby
Diocese of St. Petersburg/Holy Family
Ordained: 1966
Laicized: 1995
Died: 2005
Assignment History:
- 1970s: St. Ignatius Catholic Church (Tarpon Springs, FL)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Father Russell Gerald Appleby:
In 1994, Fr. Russell Gerald Appleby, a member of the Holy Family Missionaries, was accused of sexually abusing a boy for two years in the 1970s while serving at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Tarpon Springs in 1978-1979. A lawsuit was filed in 1996, and Appleby was charged in Texas and in Florida. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 20 years of sex offender probation. He died in prison in 2005.
Fr. Appleby was laicized in 1995. He is listed on the Corpus Christi Diocese’s 2019 list. It notes removal from ministry in the diocese 1983. The diocese said it notified Appleby’s religious superior of the allegations but learned that he had been removed from the ministry in 1991 and defrocked by the Vatican in 1995.
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