Christendom College ‘Professor Emeritus’ arrested on child sex abuse charges

The Warren County Catholic community was rocked by the Friday, June 25 arrest on a trio of child sexual abuse and solicitation charges of former professor and “Professor Emeritus” at Christendom College, William Raymond Luckey. Royal Examiner was contacted over the weekend by Catholics in this community about the arrest of the 72-year-old Luckey and alerted to a posting about it by Catholic blogger Simcha Fisher (www.simchafisher.com).

Fisher was prominent in carrying a 2018 effort by female alumni to pressure Christendom College administrators into changes in its approach to what was claimed to be a culture of coverup of an alleged history of sexual abuse of females at the conservative Catholic college, to a regional and even national online audience. Of that experience, Fisher wrote in yesterday’s post: “Christendom President Timothy O’Donnell apologized in 2018 after we reported on the school failing women who had been sexually assaulted on campus. At the time, the school pledged to bring in experts to review the school’s policies and protocols dealing with sexual assault and harassment.”

But it was not college-age women at issue in Luckey’s arrest by the Warren County Sheriff’s Office on June 25th. Luckey was charged with one count of “Solicitation of prostitution from a minor less than age 16” and two charges of “Indecent liberties, parent, grandparent, etc. of a child less than 15”. According to the RSW Regional Jail website, Luckey, of the 200-block of Summit Ridge Rd., Front Royal, was booked into the northern Warren County facility at 7:03 p.m. Friday evening. Warrants on the three charges indicate fingerprinting of Luckey between 4:35 and 4:39 p.m. that afternoon. Court documents list the offense date as June 22, 2021, for all three charges.

William R. Luckey being booked into RSW Jail June 25 on child sex offense charges alleged to have occurred three days earlier. Photo RSW Jail website

Copies of warrants on those charges received from the Warren County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on Monday offer more disturbing detail. Of the two indecent liberties charges, Luckey is accused of “with lascivious intent knowingly and intentionally sexually abuse 10-year-old female …” and “that the accused feel or fondle the sexual or genital parts of such child”.

Of the solicitation charge the warrant alleges that Luckey “offer(ed) money or its equivalent to a minor under 16 years of age to … perform (various oral or sexually penetrative acts) upon or by another person … with the intent to sexually arouse or gratify and thereafter perform a substantial act in furtherance thereof.”

As noted above, the offense date on all three charges is listed as June 22, 2021, three days before Luckey’s arrest. Luckey is initially being held without bond. According to court documents he has a bond hearing scheduled this Thursday, July 1, at 3:30 p.m. and a preliminary hearing on August 5 at 10:30 a.m., both in Warren County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. According to that court clerk’s office, Luckey was initially represented by Thaddeus Furlong, an attorney out of Stafford, Virginia. An online check indicated “Sex Crimes” among his areas of expertise. The attorney also noted a “high-profile” client base.

A phone message left with Christendom College’s public affairs department at 1 p.m., Monday, seeking comment on the arrest had not been replied to by publication.
Of Luckey’s tenure at Christendom and other positions within Catholic educational and publication endeavors, Simcha Fisher wrote on Sunday:

“Luckey is listed as a professor emeritus on the school’s website. Luckey is a frequent writer for publications Faith and Reason, as well as the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty’s publication, The Journal of Markets and Morality. He has written on Catholic social teaching and the economy for Crisis Magazine, as well.

“Luckey is listed as an adjunct scholar for the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, as well as a member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and the advisory board for the Center for Economic Personalism.

“The small Catholic liberal arts college in Front Royal, VA began awarding a William R. Luckey award for Political Science and Economics in 2015, when Luckey retired as a teacher. Two days after the arrest, Luckey was still listed on Christendom’s website as a Professor Emeritus.”