NEWARK (NJ)
Star-Ledger
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
BY JEFF DIAMANT
Star-Ledger Staff
The Newark Archdiocese has reached a settlement with a man who accused a Catholic priest of sexually abusing him two decades ago, his attorney said yesterday.
The agreement was reached last month, said Greg Gianforcaro, attorney for Joe Capozzi, who now lives in Manhattan.
Capozzi, who contacted The Star-Ledger about the settlement yesterday, said the diocese agreed to pay $50,000. He had told the archdiocese that Monsignor Peter Cheplic molested him in the 1980s, when Capozzi was a teenager and Cheplic worked at St. Joseph of the Palisades in West New York.
Capozzi, 37, said his family first met Cheplic in 1977 when the priest worked at St. Matthew Parish in Ridgefield.