Alabama priest accused of having a sexual relationship with teen stripper, paying her thousands in hush money
Robert Sullivan, 61, is on leave as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Homewood, Alabama, after he was publicly accused of initiating a relationship with Heather Jones, now 33, when she was a vulnerable teenager in 2009.
While tipping her, he offered her $273,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for “an ongoing relationship that would include financial support in exchange for private companionship,” Jones alleged, telling the Guardian that the agreement included sex.
Jones, who was raised in foster care due to her mother’s “severe neglect,” said she “was hesitant but ultimately agreed due to his persistence and the state [of mind] I was in,” according to her letter to the diocese.
Days later, she received two wire transfers of $136,500 each under the name of an attorney’s office, she alleged.
Sullivan, initially posing as a doctor, took her out to shop, eat, drink and stay at hotels in at least six different Alabama cities over the course of the relationship, which lasted until this year, she alleged.
Between just July 18, 2024, and March this year, a Venmo account under Jones’ name had paid Jones almost $120,000, she told the Guardian.
Jones said she felt compelled to go public with the allegations because Sullivan works so closely with families and their children at his church.
“Others may be vulnerable to the same type of manipulation and exploitation,” she told the paper.
Sullivan has been a priest for more than 32 years and was formerly president of John Carroll High School for six years.
https://nypost.com/2025/08/14/us-news/al...ush-money/
Robert Sullivan, 61, is on leave as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Homewood, Alabama, after he was publicly accused of initiating a relationship with Heather Jones, now 33, when she was a vulnerable teenager in 2009.
While tipping her, he offered her $273,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for “an ongoing relationship that would include financial support in exchange for private companionship,” Jones alleged, telling the Guardian that the agreement included sex.
Jones, who was raised in foster care due to her mother’s “severe neglect,” said she “was hesitant but ultimately agreed due to his persistence and the state [of mind] I was in,” according to her letter to the diocese.
Days later, she received two wire transfers of $136,500 each under the name of an attorney’s office, she alleged.
Sullivan, initially posing as a doctor, took her out to shop, eat, drink and stay at hotels in at least six different Alabama cities over the course of the relationship, which lasted until this year, she alleged.
Between just July 18, 2024, and March this year, a Venmo account under Jones’ name had paid Jones almost $120,000, she told the Guardian.
Jones said she felt compelled to go public with the allegations because Sullivan works so closely with families and their children at his church.
“Others may be vulnerable to the same type of manipulation and exploitation,” she told the paper.
Sullivan has been a priest for more than 32 years and was formerly president of John Carroll High School for six years.
https://nypost.com/2025/08/14/us-news/al...ush-money/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
