BishopAccountability.org
	Former Episcopal Priest Admits to Sexual Abuse WSTM August 14, 2007 http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=6932228&nav=2aKD Saint James Episcopal Church has stood in Skaneateles for nearly 150 years. Roughly 22-years ago Father J. Edward Putnam, began committing a series of atrocities that he has now confessed to. Father Robert de Wetter of St. James in Skaneateles says things began to come to light in May. "The bishop of our diocese received a phone call from a victim and within one hour the investigation was launched." The caller accused Putnam of sexually abusing him. An investigation revealed three more boys that Putnam admitted to sexually abusing between the years of 1986 and 1993. Several of the incidents happened in Saint James Church. The boys were pre-teen adolescents and de Wetter says the punishment for Putnam, now 66 with a wife and 3 grown children, was swift. "He has been suspended from the ministry, he can function no where in the Episcopal Church, no where in a clergy capacity anywhere." We tried to contact Putnam today, but those who know him say his house in Skaneateles is for sale and he's already living elsewhere. The Syracuse Episcopal Dioceses handed the investigation to state police, but Bishop Adams says the statute of limitations prevents investigators from doing much else. Adams says in New York, depending on circumstance, victims of sexual abuse have 3 to 5 years after they turn 18 to report it. Father de Wetter and many from Saint James Parish say that is not enough time to come to terms with an unspeakable violation.
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