By George Brennan
Cape Cod Times
April 7, 2011
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110407/NEWS11/110409834/-1/news
 |
| Forestdale-- 04/06/11-- A hearse leaves the grounds at Camp Good News on yesterday morning. |
The alleged sex abuse scandal at Camp Good News continues to grow with two new victims coming forward today - bringing the total to six, according to an attorney representing several clients.
Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston-based attorney who represented abuse victims against the Catholic church, said he has not yet talked to the alleged victims in detail, but they both said the abuse happened at the Sandwich-based camp.
Charles Chuck Devita a Camp Good News employee accused of molesting a 10-year-old boy yesterday apparently killed himself with a single gunshot in his pickup truck as police began investigating allegations he molested a 10-year-old boy at the camp 26 years ago.
Two of the victims who came forward yesterday named Devita, 43, as their alleged abuser. A third person pointed the finger at another camp employee that Garabedian did not identify.
Officials at Camp Good News have not responded to requests by the Times for comment. This morning the camp's former director, Faith Willard, refused to respond to a Boston Herald reporter's questions: "I don't have any comment," Willard said at her Cape Cod home and then closed her front door.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman at Riverview School in Sandwich, a private school for children with disabilities, confirmed that Devita worked for six years at the East Sandwich school during the 1990s. She could not immediately comment on what led to him leaving the school and asked for a reporter's questions in writing.
Devita was fired in 2002 from his job at Sandwich Community School, where he worked on pool maintenance. At the time, Sandwich police were investigating allegations of child pornography involving Devita. He was never charged, but school officials found the allegations credible enough that he was let go, a school employee said.
Sandra Devita, Chuck Devita's mother, said this morning in an interview with the Times that she tried to warn camp leaders about suspicions she had that her son was a pedophile.
I had suspicion, Sandra Devita said from her Florida home. I couldn't put my finger on anything in particular, but it was the whole general pattern of behavior. I talked to the camp director Faith (Willard). They kind of just blew it off.
In a prepared statement from Camp Good News late this afternoon, Faith Willard denied ever speaking with Sandra Devita about her concerns about her son.
"Faith Willard, a 78-year-old with an MA in counseling from Columbia University, had only one phone conversation with Sandy Devita and has never met her in person, to the best of her knowledge," the statement said. "That one conversation was initiated by Mrs. Devita for the purpose of asking Ms. Willard to have Chuck Devita call his mother. At no time was the issue of abuse raised by Mrs. Devita to Ms. Willard."
Garabedian said this morning that comments by Devita's mother indicate that camp supervisors allegedly turned a blind eye, . It's becoming apparent that supervisors knew of problems involving Chuck Devita yet may not have informed campers and their parents, he said.
Police will continue the criminal investigation, despite Devita's death, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe and Sandwich Police Chief Peter Wack said in a joint statement yesterday.
Sandra Devita raised Chuck as a single mother in Flushing, N.Y. She said she originally sent him to Camp Good News when he was 9 years old because leaders agreed to cut her a break on the fee. As he got older, she became uneasy about things happening at the camp at one point her son was about to run off with a nurse from the camp to Texas until she stepped in and stopped it, she said.
Charles Devita graduated from State University of New York-Plattsburgh, with a degree in education, his mother said. He taught at a military school in New York for a couple of years and when it closed, he moved to the Cape to work at the camp he attended as a child.
Her son likely killed himself because he felt that more allegations were coming, Sandra Devita said.
The mother and son had a falling out 19 years ago, she said, and had no contact since then.
I'm talking about this because I'm hoping other people will learn from this and not try to cover things up, she said.
Contact: gbrennan@capecodonline.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.