Crime & Safety

Ex-Priest Convicted of Child Sex Assault Set for Jail Release

Former priest convicted of molesting Chicago Ridge altar boys set for supervised release from Wisconsin mental health treatment facility.

An ex-priest and convicted child sex predator is due to be released from a Wisconsin prison.


Norbert J. Maday, 75, who served in various parishes around Chicago’s Southwest Side and suburbs, was convicted in 1994 on three counts of sexual assault and one count of intimidating a victim.


The ex-priest was on a church outing in Osh Kosh, WI, when he was accused of molesting two altar boys from Our Lady of the Ridge Church in Chicago Ridge in 1986.

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Maday was sentenced to a 20-year prison term by a Wisconsin judge. He was committed last year to a secure treatment facility after being classified as a sexually violent person, according to the state’s sex offender registry.


A Winnebago County judge ordered Maday to be released from the treatment facility on or before Aug. 2.

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According to SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Maday was ordained in 1964 and graduated from St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. He worked at St. John of God in Chicago (1964-66), St. Leo’s in Chicago (1966-1969), St. Louis de Montfort in Oak Lawn (1969-77), St. Bede the Venerable in Chicago (1977-83), Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge (1983-89), and St. Jude the Apostle in South Holland (1989-1992). Maday also served as the associate director of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Youth.


He was defrocked or laicized in 2007.


Maday had spent 13 years in prison when he was classified a sexual offender, allowing him to be sentenced to a mental health treatment facility where he underwent annual evaluations to determine if he was still a threat, the local FOX-11 news affiliated in Greenbay, WI reported.


His most recent evaluation determined that he met criteria for supervised release and that he had been cooperative while undergoing treatment, a Wisconsin judge said.


Maday’s case had been under appeal. Rather than risk a trial and have him walk away without supervision, a special prosecutor from Winnebago County said that Maday would be put on a closely-monitored, supervised release into the community, FOX-11 reported.


Such conditions include wearing an electronic monitor and not being allowed to leave his residence without a chaperone during the first year of his release. The remainder of Maday’s supervised release program was sealed in court.


Maday is set to be released on or before August 2.


Members of SNAP are calling on Chicago Catholic officials “to use their vast resources to warn families” about Maday’s release and his possible return to the Chicago area.


“Chicago archdiocesan staffers recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained, supervised and transferred Maday,” members said in a press statement. “They still have an obligation to try to keep him from assaulting more children.”


A spokeswoman said that the Archdiocese of Chicago would not be taking measures to alert the community if Maday returned to the Chicago area because he was no longer the archdiocese's responsibility after being defrocked.



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