WACO, TEXAS — The McLennan County district attorney's office in Waco, Texas, filed a motion in late March to consolidate three criminal sexual assault cases against Roman Catholic priest Anthony Odiong. Odiong, a clergyman with ties to Texas and southeast Louisiana, was criminally charged with abusing his position as a clergyman to pursue sex with three female congregants.

The motion, prepared by McLennan County First Assistant District Attorney Ryan Calvert, states that each of the three pending cases involves Odiong exploiting his parishioners' emotional dependency upon him as a spiritual adviser and engaging in sexual conduct with them. Under Texas state law, a defendant may be prosecuted in a single criminal action if the alleged crimes are connected or are the repeated commission of the same or similar offenses. Texas law classifies exploiting parishioners' emotional dependency and engaging in sexual conduct with them as a felony.

Odiong faces five counts of sexual assault in the first degree and two counts of sexual assault in the second degree stemming from encounters with three women. If convicted of any first-degree charge, he could receive a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Odiong has the right to object to the consolidation motion and request to be tried on each case individually, according to court filings.

Odiong remains in Waco police custody in lieu of more than $500,000 bail. In December 2024, he declined an offer to plead guilty in exchange for the chance to become eligible for parole after 20 years in prison.

Investigators identified a total of 10 women whom Odiong is suspected of targeting after meeting them through his ministry in Texas and the Louisiana region, including suburban New Orleans. The cases of several of those women, including those from Louisiana, did not result in criminal charges. However, according to court filings, some accusers whose allegations did not lead to charges can be called to testify in support of the three women whose cases are slated for trial together. Because multiple women came forward, Texas prosecutors were able to pursue charges without consideration for how long ago some of the alleged crimes occurred.

At a preliminary court hearing in November 2024, it was revealed that Odiong fathered at least two children with women he met through his work as a clergyman, violating his promise of sexual celibacy. There is no indication that any of the three women at the center of the charges are the mothers of his children. Authorities consider his offspring as evidence of a pattern of pursuing women he met through his ministry.

Odiong published an open letter on social media in which he dismissed the claims against him as false. He is one of several men who worked as Catholic clergymen in the New Orleans area to have been arrested on allegations of sexual abuse both before and after the archdiocese filed for federal bankruptcy protection in 2020.