NEW MILFORD (CT)
New Milford Spectrum
By John Pirro
STAFF WRITER
It’s been 12 years since allegations against the then-pastor of New Milford’s St. John’s Episcopal Church split the parish and ultimately led to his defrocking.
On Tuesday, Bruce Jacques, the former St. John’s pastor who in 1994 was accused of offering oral sex to a teenaged boy as a confirmation gift, was arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom for allegedly performing a sex act on a 16-year-old boy in Central Park last October.
Twelve years after the local incident, Kevin Mcdougall — the father of the teen who made the charges against the Rev. Jacques — said he feels a “bitter sense of vindication” over the news of Mr. Jacques’ arrest in New York City.
“It’s bitter because it came at the expense of another kid, who didn’t escape as lightly as my son did,” Mr. Mcdougall, who lives in Kent, said Tuesday.
Mr. Jacques, 57, had apparently been on the run for six months. Officials said he was arrested Sunday after he was caught Sunday trying to sneak into the United States from British Columbia on Canada’s west coast.