La Salle alumnus alleges sex abuse

By Robert Gavin
Albany Times Union
September 22, 2014

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/La-Salle-alumnus-alleges-sex-abuse-5773612.php

Michael Cioppa, 39 of Latham takes part in a press conference where he alleged that he was sexually abused by a Catholic school teacher at La Salle Institute when he was 16 and 17 years-old Monday Sept. 22, 2014, outside the Pastoral Center in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

John Aretakis speaks to the media during a press conference where Michael Cioppa, 39 of Latham alleged that he was sexually abused by a Catholic school teacher at La Salle Institute when he was 16 and 17 years-old Monday Sept. 22, 2014, during a press conference outside the Pastoral Center in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Albany

A former student at La Salle Institute said Monday he was sexually abused at the Catholic school in Troy more than two decades ago by a teacher who used him as his "personal prostitute" during time designated for private tutoring.

Michael Cioppa, 39, of Latham, said the teacher molested him in the man's apartment but also treated him to favors like a plum parking spot, and the man even took a Regents exam for him.

During a news conference a teary-eyed Cioppa revealed alleged details of an ordeal he said has left him so emotionally devastated, the married man does not want to bring children into the world.

"Not after what I've seen," Cioppa said.

Now a businessman working as a care provider, he said he was abused starting at age 16. When he finally came forward, he said, he was told to keep quiet.

"I just kept my mouth shut," Cioppa said. "The internal frustration was unbearable and the confusion I suffered is still crippling my existence. I graduated and disappeared."

He said the teacher was quietly ousted years later, but only after Cioppa learned his younger brother, attending La Salle, was about to get the same teacher.

"I thought to myself, (the teacher) got one Cioppa, he's not going to get another."

Cioppa said he told his father about his abuse, and his father contacted a state trooper who went the next day to the school administration, leading to the teacher's removal.

Cioppa's supporters on Monday questioned why the trooper did not take further action and report the abuse beyond the school, which should have prevented the man from teaching elsewhere.

The Times Union sent a copy of Cioppa's remarks to the school and emailed several administrators, including the principal, Brother Carl Malacalza. No school official responded Monday.

The news conference was held outside the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese Pastoral Center on North Main Avenue.

Cioppa said he reported the abuse to then-Bishop Howard Hubbard but was not helped.

On Monday, a statement by the diocese said it learned of the complaint in 2000 and referred the matter to La Salle. Also, "as a pastoral gesture, as is and was our policy, the diocese offered counseling to the person making the allegation and to his family."

"The diocese has had no further communication regarding this allegation since 2001," spokesman Ken Goldfarb stated.

"Sexual abuse is a crime and an egregious sin, and the Albany Diocese has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse of children by clerics," the statement said. "Any priest or deacon against whom an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor is substantiated at any time is permanently removed from ministry."

According to Cioppa, the abuse started after the then-principal of La Salle, Brother James Romond, referred him to the teacher for tutoring so Cioppa could pass a Regents test. Cioppa said the sessions were to take place every Saturday morning at the teacher's apartment, but that it only involved abuse.

Romond died in 2000.

"(The teacher) had his own specific intentions with me and went on to molest and sexually abuse me against my will," Cioppa told reporters. "Talking about it now, 20 years later, is still upsetting and incredibly painful."

He said he "began to feel some resentment and jealousy from my classmates as a result of the extra privileges I was awarded for being (the teacher's) personal prostitute."

Cioppa said he was made a eucharistic minister, which required he make a mandatory confession with the school's chaplain. He said the chaplain, the Rev. Salvatore "Sam" Rodino, "deterred me from divulging any of my misfortune" because it would be stress on Cioppa's father, an ordained deacon.

In 2009, Rodino was placed on administrative leave amid allegations he sexually abused a teenager about 27 years earlier. He remains on the leave, which followed a recommendation by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany sexual misconduct review board. Rodino had been pastor at St. Jude the Apostle in Wynantskill since 2005.

The Times Union could not reach the teacher, who is not charged with a crime. The trooper could not be reached Monday.

Cioppa was joined by his parents, John Aretakis, a suspended attorney who was involved in clergy abuse lawsuits and Robert Hoatson, a former priest in New Jersey who is president of Road to Recovery, which assists survivors of sexual abuse.