A Catholic deacon has been charged with multiple sex offenses against a female family member decades ago, Montgomery County police said Wednesday.
Dan Paul Stallings, 71, of the 10000 block of Woodland Drive in Silver Spring, was charged Tuesday with 10 counts of incest by prosecutors.
He had been a permanent deacon at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Silver Spring since 1986. Stallings was being held in the county detention center Wednesday on $250,000 bond, police said.
Police would not identify Stallings? victim or her relation to him but said she was a juvenile when the alleged crimes occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington, said the charges are unrelated to Stallings? church service.
Police said they are concerned about the possibility of additional victims because of Stallings? involvement in the church?s youth organizations and other positions working with children there.
But police spokesman Cpl. Jimmy Robinson said the department was not investigating specific additional allegations.
Robinson said police don?t know why the victim waited so long to come forward.
Dolly Hammer, a church member who said she has known Stallings for years, said she was shocked when she learned of the charges Wednesday. She said Stallings was a widower whose wife died a year ago.
“I really don?t know what to say,” Hammer said.
