By Ralph Ortega
The Star-Ledger
May 7, 2008
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/05/priests_attorney_claims_retire.html
A retired janitor came forward to say there was no lock on a church bathroom where a sex abuse victim claimed he was sodomized as a child by a priest in Hunterdon County, a lawyer said in court today.
The witness statement, made to the Hunterdon County Public Defender's Office, could end up being used by the defense to introduce reasonable doubt in the latest trial of John M. Banko.
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| John M. Banko |
The 62-year-old Banko, a former Milford priest already serving a 15 year sentence on a previous child sex abuse conviction, is again on trial after another victim was identified. The victim, now 23 and living out of state, testified today that he was locked in a church bathroom as a child and sodomized by Banko, several times in the 1990s.
Public defender Peter Abatemarco, however, said the retired janitor insisted there was no lock on the bathroom during the time of the alleged abuse at St. Edward's Roman Catholic Church.
Abatemarco held off offering the janitor as a witness, to allow the state a chance to conduct its own investigation. He mentioned the witness in Judge Roger Mahon's court in Flemington, while the jury was taking a break from the case.
The sometimes violent abuse, according to the victim, happened in the boys bathroom at the parish center of St. Edward's, while he attended religious studies there between September 1994 and May 1995. Banko was the pastor at the time.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Solari, who is representing the state, said the victim was 9- and 10 years old when he was abused by Banko. Solari told Mahon that she had been unaware of the janitor's statement. However, she did say that a recent inspection of the bathroom door showed that it currently has no lock.
Banko was convicted in 2002 of performing oral sex on a boy after Sunday Mass two times.
Once known as Father Jack to his parishioners, Banko was removed from his post at St. Edward's by the Diocese of Metuchen, and transferred to the Mary Mother of God Church in Hillsborough. He was then relieved of that assignment in April 2000, shortly after the prosecutor's office began its investigation of the initial charges made against him.
He is charged with separate counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child in the new case. Banko is currently an inmate at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center, New Jersey's prison for sex offenders. Another 20 years could be added to his sentence if convicted on the new charges.
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