Attorneys for priest on Joliet tour say he was ‘building rapport’ in hair-touching incident

Attorneys for a priest on a relic tour in Joliet claimed he was “building rapport” when he joked about whether a female student flossed her hair with her teeth and then touched her hair.

A Nov. 21 incident in Joliet involving Father Carlos Martins, of Companions of the Cross, has led to a Joliet Police Department investigation. The Companions of the Cross announced on Monday that Martins’ ministry has been temporarily suspended.

Police officials and the Diocese of Joliet have not yet revealed the exact circumstances that led to the investigation.

Martins’ attorneys with the Burke Law Group, based in Texas, detailed their own allegations of the incident in a cease-and-desist letter on Monday addressed to Catholic news website The Pillar.

The letter accused The Pillar of defaming Martins in their Nov. 23 article on the incident. J.D. Flynn, editor-in-chief of The Pillar, declined to comment. The Pillar published an article on Monday with details about Martins’ attorneys’ letter.

When contacted about Martins’ attorneys’ letter, the Diocese of Joliet officials said that to “protect all involved,” neither them nor one of the involved parishes have released information about the Nov. 21 incident.

“We are aware of the narrative set forth by the priest’s attorney. The narrative is incomplete. We will not be commenting further,” diocesan officials said.

Joliet police Sgt. Dwayne English has not responded to questions about the letter on Tuesday or whether police have yet interviewed Martins.

In a statement, Martins’ attorney Marcella Burke said, “We have not been contacted by police.”

“That said, we stand ready to cooperate with law enforcement upon request. We remain confident that any investigation, by law enforcement or otherwise, will fully exonerate [Martins],” Burke said.

The letter provided by the Burke Law Group claimed more than 200 students were in attendance at the Nov. 21 event where Martins was sharing a relic for “public veneration.” The letter said Martins is bald and he will joke about his baldness “as a conversation starter.”

“During his conversation with the older students, he made a comment to a student about her long hair, remarking, ‘You and I have almost the same hair style,’ a comment met with giggles. He then remarked that he also once had long hair like hers, and he joked he would ‘floss my teeth with it,’” the attorneys’ letter claimed.

The letter claimed Martins asked the student if she “ever flossed with your hair” and she laughed and “shook her head no.”

“[Martins] then said, ‘Well, you have the perfect length for it,’ as he lifted up a lock from her shoulders to show her its length,” the attorneys’ letter said.

The letter claimed the student “giggled along with the others” and Martins was “building rapport.”

But when the student went home and told her father the story, he became “infuriated by what he heard” and called the police, the letter claimed.

The letter claimed police responded to the event, questioned students and left without “making any arrests or filing charges” but decided to investigate further when the student’s father contacted police a second time to insist Martins should face a battery charge.

The letter contends there is no indication of any new evidence that would further implicate Martins of “any wrongdoing.”