By Kate Thayer
Kane County Chronicle
February 13, 2008
http://www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2008/02/12/news/local/doc47b281d43b7b6073768674.txt
Former St. Peter priest Mark Campobello is expected to walk out of prison today, his sentence for a sex abuse conviction complete, but one parishioner says the turmoil from the abuse is far from over.
Campobello, 43, who came to the Geneva church in 1994 and also taught at Aurora Central Catholic High School, pleaded guilty in 2004 to abusing two teenage girls and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
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| Former priest Mark Campobello is scheduled to be paroled. |
Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said Tuesday that Campobello already went before the prisoner review board and was scheduled to begin four years of parole today.
He served three years and eight months at Illinois River Correctional Center in downstate Canton.
Parishioner Kate Bochte, who followed the criminal case and the lawsuit that followed, said the way church officials handled the abuse had caused her and her husband to rethink their role in the church.
"We're still registered parishioners ... but we have pretty much left the church," she said. "It was our choice. We didn't like how they responded to [Campobello]."
St. Peter Monsignor Joseph Jarmoluk did not return phone calls Tuesday.
Bochte said Jarmoluk failed to bring "healing" to the church, by way of counselors, sex-abuse awareness, or town hall meetings, following Campobello's conviction.
Although Campobello will be released from prison, he must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
State law dictates that sex offenders must notify police of their address and other information within five days of their release from prison.
That information also will be on the state's online registry.
As a condition of his release, Campobello also must follow additional rules set forth by the board, but they are confidential, Schnapp said.
Campobello's release closes another chapter in a complex story.
In August 2006, Jarmoluk wrote a letter to parishioners, stating that Bishop Thomas Doran had asked him to seek forgiveness "of people I might have offended."
He also told parishioners that he had released his personal attorney and had asked a New York company to cease production on a documentary film about him – all at Doran's request.
Less than a year later, in May 2007, the Rockford Diocese paid a $2.2 million settlement to Campobello's two victims, who are now in their 20s. The families of the girls had sued the diocese, Doran and Campobello, alleging that the diocese and Doran ignored warning signs and did not conduct background checks on Campobello.
A judge entered a default judgment on Campobello in 2004, long before the lawsuit was settled, after he failed to respond to the lawsuit from prison.
A man answering a phone number listed on a Web site for New York-based CTL Media said the documentary featuring Jarmoluk – "Forsaken: A Monsignor's Silent Fight to Save His Faith" – would be released this year.
The film caused a stir last year when cameras appeared at Geneva locations, including the courthouse, and attorneys in the civil case feared that it might name Campobello's victims.
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