NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
By JASON DEL REY
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
An allegation of sexual misconduct against Monsignor Peter Cheplic that Archdiocese investigators deemed "credible" was referred to county prosecutors, an Archdiocese spokesman said yesterday.
The investigation, concluded by the Archdiocese Response Team in April 2003, was of a March 2002 allegation by Martin Kansky that Cheplic had sexually molested him at a house at the Shore in 1978, when Kansky was 18 and Cheplic was pastor of St. Matthew's Church in Ridgefield.
According to a letter received by Kansky from the Rev. Robert Emery, vice chancellor and coordinator of the Archdiocese Response Team, the allegation was "credible" and the Archdiocese offered to provide counseling to Kansky. Kansky, now married and living in Tennessee, did not accept the offer.
Cheplic has since voluntarily stepped down from his post as parochial vicar of St. Henry Church in Bayonne during an investigation into two other allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
Archdiocese spokesman Jim Goodness said yesterday that the Archdiocese Response Team turned over its information to prosecutors in Hudson County, where Cheplic was then pastor at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City, and in Ocean County, where the alleged abuse occurred.