1/11/2022 Update: Michael Zacharias has deadline for plea deal extended
1/10/22 Your News Now at Five: A former priest that served in Van Wert and Findlay has until Wednesday at 9 a.m. to accept a plea deal on charges of human trafficking.
Michael Zacharias is facing a total of five charges in federal court all involve trafficking either minors or adults for sex. He was arrested in 2020 by the Northwest Ohio Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. Five of the ten original charges have been dismissed. The offenses started when Zacharias was working with Catholic schools in Toledo and continued for years until the victims were adults. The indictment says that he would give money to the victims to help feed their drug addiction in exchange for sex. His case is currently in the Northern Ohio Federal Court in Toledo.
