NEWARK (NJ)
The Jersey Journal
Thursday, May 04, 2006
By JOURNAL STAFF
Journal staff writer
AND WIRE REPORT
The Newark Archdiocese has agreed to shell out thousands of dollars to settle sexual abuse claims leveled against Monsignor Peter Cheplic, an alleged predator priest who worked in several Hudson County parishes.
The agreement, arrived at last month, calls for payouts of $50,000 to Joe Capozzi, 37, who now lives in Manhattan, and $25,000 to Raymond Capone, 40, a South Plainfield resident, according to the two men.
A third man will also receive money, but he requested that his identity and the amount of his settlement be kept hidden, said Greg Gianforcaro, the attorney who represented all three men.
The money will help pay legal bills, but it will hardly compensate him for the nightmare he endured, Capone said. He said he came forward not for money, but to prevent other boys from being abused.
"This was only about outing Peter Cheplic for the phony, fraud, sexual deviant and predator that he is," said Capone, who claimed Cheplic molested him in an East Orange parish in 1985. "It was making sure he never misused the church so grossly again."