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	Hunterdon Priest Won't Take Deal in Sex Abuse Case By Ralph R. Ortega and Claire Heininger The Star-Ledger [New Jersey] April 12, 2007 http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates/2007/04/hunterdon_priest_wont_take_dea.html A former Hunterdon County priest maintains his innocence in the latest child sexual abuse allegations brought against him and will not accept a plea deal from prosecutors, his attorney said today. However, the attorney for the Rev. John M. Banko requested that prosecutors prepare a plea offer for the record as a formality. In a pretrial conference before Superior Court Judge Roger Mahon in Flemington, public defender Peter Abatemarco said the former priest is not guilty of the charges he was indicted on in September. Banko, 60, is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence stemming from his 2002 conviction for performing oral sex on a young boy in the sacristy of a Roman Catholic church's community center after two Sunday Masses in the 1990s. The latest charges allege he abused another young boy around the same time as the first. The September indictment claims the victim was younger than 16 when the abuse occurred, and that it took place while Banko was serving as a pastor at a Milford church on or around Sept. 1, 1994, and May 15, 1995. Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Dawn Solari told the judge today that she was awaiting a report from a state child sex abuse center that is reviewing child medical records from the alleged victim, who is now an adult. Solari said she had already obtained an expert report submitted on child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome, which explains the relationship between the abuser and the victim, and had interviewed a potential witness and sent a copy of the interview to the defense. But prosecutors will not be bringing in other possible Banko victims whose cases were never prosecuted to testify, as had been suggested at an earlier hearing, Solari said. There is expected to be one more status conference before the start of trial, on May 4, when the alleged victim's child medical records will be reviewed.
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