MENDHAM (NJ)
Observer-Tribune
By MARIA VOGEL-SHORT Staff Writer 08/17/2005
MENDHAM —- The lawyer for an indicted ex-priest said charges against his client of child abuse and endangerment have been “misinterpreted,” while the head of the Daytop drug treatment program where the priest was employed said Monday he is grateful the former cleric was “stopped in his tracks.”
The former priest, the Rev. Richard Mieliwocki, 58, was indicted by a Morris County grand jury in Morristown on Tuesday, Aug. 9, for criminal sexual contact and child endangerment at Daytop Village between March and December of 2004.
The indictment alleges that Mieliwocki abused four male residents of Daytop, age 16 to 18. Daytop is a residential drug rehabilitation program in Mendham.
Mieliwocki was arrested on Dec. 28, 2004, after Daytop director the Rev. Joseph Hennen notified the Morris County Prosecutor’s of alleged improper behavior by Mieliwocki during counseling sessions..
Mieliwocki had been suspended from his priest post almost two years ago by the Archdiocese of Newark after allegations of sexual abuse were made, dating back to 1994, according to a spokesman for the Newark archdiocese.
The state Department of Community Affairs suspended his license as a social worker for alleged improper behavior in 1999 at Clifton Mental