Christopher Cunningham California Catholic priest arrested

Father Christopher Cunningham was arrested today, April 14, 2021, in Rhode Island and charged with 12 felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office issued a news release stating in part that Father Christopher Cunningham was arrested for multiple acts of child molestation while working as a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. One of Father Cunningham’s victims was from Saint Marry’s Catholic Church in Palmdale, CA. The boy was allegedly sexually multiple times in the mid to late 1990s.

Other victims leading to Father Cunningham’s arrest include two 10 and 12 year old boys from the late 1990s and early 2000s at Saint Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach.

The arrest warrant issued by the Los Angeles District Attorney for Father Cunningham’s arrest alleges that between 1995 and 2001 Father Christopher Cunningham committed the crime of Lewd Acts Upon a Child against four separate boys. The criminal complaint alleges that Father Cunningham willfully, unlawfully, and lewdly committed sexual acts on the boys with the intent of arousing and gratifying his lust, passions, and sexual desires for his victims.

Father Cunningham’s arrest follows multiple civil lawsuits filed by the Law Offices of Anthony M. DeMarco against Father Cunningham and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for child molestation. Our law firm has represented over seven victims who were sexually molested by Father Cunningham when they were children attending the Catholic Churches where Cunningham worked as a priest.

Our office put in a lot of hard work over the past four years investigating the Los Angeles Catholic Church and the many ways that the Archdiocese transferred Father Cunningham to protect him from causing a scandal in church communities for molesting the parish’s children.

In the mid 1990’s complaints were made to the administrators of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that Father Cunningham was exhibiting behavior that was suspicious of child sexual abuse. The Archdiocese never investigated the claims or complaints. Instead, they simply transferred Father Cunningham to another church where he was allowed to continue molesting children.

The Law Offices of Anthony M. DeMarco are thankful and appreciative for all of the hard work, diligence, and integrity of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, their Special Victims Bureau, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office that finally lead to Father Christopher Cunningham’s arrest.