Father Thomas Crandall
Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee
Ordained: 1981
Removed: 2002
Convicted: 2003 and 2005
Assignment History:
- 1981-1983: St. Dominic (Panama City, FL)
- 1983-1985: St. Paul (Pensacola, FL)
- 1983-1985: Pensacola Catholic High School (Pensacola, FL)
- 1986-1998: St. Joseph (Port St. Joe, FL)
- 1998-2002: St. Rose of Lima (Milton, FL)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Father Thomas Crandall:
Fr. Thomas Crandall was a popular priest at St. Rose of Lima in Milton, FL for three years, until a drug informant led authorities to Crandall, who provided the informant drugs for resale.
In 2002, Fr. Crandall pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to possess with the intent to deliver five grams or more of methamphetamine or Ecstacy. Crandall was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison. Crandall also agreed to repay $83,225 missing from St. Rose of Lima Parish in Milton as part of his plea deal with federal prosecutors. He was released on probation in 2005.
In 2005, Crandall was arrested again in Mobile, Alabama on Internet child pornography charges. FBI agents searched his apartment for materials depicting child pornography and seized an undetermined number of items. According to a Gulf County sheriff’s investigator’s sworn statement, Crandall was located through e-mail messages and images he had sent during an undercover investigation of an Internet chat room. Buchanan posed as a 15-year-old boy. In the messages, Crandall wrote that he had porn videos involving straight, bisexual, and homosexual activity and offered copies, according to Buchanan’s statement. He also discussed meeting his e-mail contact.
Crandall was sentenced to 10 years in state prison in Port St. Joe, five years on each of two counts of transmission of child pornography over the Internet. He is listed on the sex offender registry, and he is also named on the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee 2020 list of priests that have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor or minors.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in Florida. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in Florida, contact our office today. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Florida and nationwide. We can help.
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