Priest Convicted of Groping Woman

By Kathleen Hopkins
The Courier-Post
October 16, 2014

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/south-jersey/2014/10/16/priest-convicted-groping-woman/17347421/

A garden named at after Rev. Marukudiyil C. Velan, also known as “Father Chris,” at the Church of Visitation in Brick.

A jury on Wednesday convicted a popular Brick priest of groping a woman, but acquitted him of molesting her two children.

After deliberating about nine hours over two days, the panel of six men and six women announced its verdict about 5 p.m. in the trial of Marukudiyil Velan, better known to parishioners at Church of the Visitation in Brick as "Father Chris."

The jury found Velan, 66, guilty of criminal sexual contact on the woman, among the least serious of the charges he faced, and acquitted him of six other crimes related to alleged molestation of the woman's two children.

Velan's attorney, S. Karl Mohel, said his client is unlikely to face prison because the offense he was convicted of, a fourth-degree crime, carries a presumption of no incarceration for people who do not have any prior criminal convictions. The crime, which carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison, is not a Megan's Law offense, so the priest will not be required to register his whereabouts with police or be on parole for the rest of his life, Mohel said.

A conviction on the most serious charge against Velan, sexual assault of the woman's daughter, who was 5 at the time of the alleged molestation, would have resulted in a prison term of five to 10 years, lifetime parole supervision and registration with police under Megan's Law.

The other charges Velan was acquitted of was another fourth-degree count of criminal sexual contact on the woman's son, who was 13 years old at the time; and three counts of child endangerment for which he could have received anything from a probationary terms to five years in prison.

Velan was relieved when he heard the verdict, Mohel said. Some parishioners who were in the courtroom to support Velan quietly wept when they heard the verdict and later told Velan and his attorney they were happy with it, Mohel said. There were about 20 parishioners in the courtroom at the time the verdict was announced.

"I'm certainly ecstatic he was acquitted of all the charges involving the children," Mohel said.

Velan, who has been barred from the church since the accusations emerged, will now try to tend to his health, Mohel said. When the trial was supposed to start last month, the priest collapsed from dehydration in the cafeteria in the courthouse complex, resulting in a five-day hospitalization at Community Medical Center and a brief postponement of the proceedings, the defense attorney said.

"He's had this hanging over his head for two years,'' Mohel said of Velan and the allegations he faced. "He's going to try to make some plans and take stock of his life. He can't work for the church anymore, and his whole life was the church."

The verdict followed a three-day trial before Superior Court Judge James M. Blaney that was attended by a steady group of parishioners who were there to support Velan.

At the trial, Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Terry Ann Linardakis argued that Velan molested the boy in April of 2012. The boy, now 15, testified the molestation occurred while they were stopped at a red light in the priest's car, on the way to McDonald's.

Then, on July 13, 2012, the boy and his mother testified that both of them were groped by Velan, as was the 5-year-old girl as she sat on the priest's lap in the family's home, before all of them went out to get a pizza.

The girl, now 7, did not testify, nor did the priest.

Mohel argued to the jury that it didn't make sense the family would go out to pick up a pizza with a man who had just molested all of them, and then invite him back into their home to eat the pizza afterward, or that a parent would let someone who molested her son near the family again. He told the jury the family concocted the story so that they could collect money in a lawsuit they have filed against Velan, the church and the Diocese of Trenton.

Velan had befriended the family in the neighborhood several years earlier and would regularly bring them treats while on his round distributing day-old baked goods to poor families, according to Mohel.

But Linardakis argued that Velan had admitted the molestation to detectives in a videotaped session.

The jury reached its verdict about five hours after reviewing for a second time the videotape of Velan being questioned by detectives on July 14, 2012.

On the videotape, Velan readily admitted touching the mother's breast on the date in question and acknowledged that he had done so in the past in the process of hugging her.

Regarding the children, Velan told the detectives he was resisting their inappropriate moves. He said it was the 5-year-old girl who took his hand and placed it on her inner thigh, near her private parts, but he moved it away. He told detectives the boy was rubbing up against him, but he pushed him away, touching the child's genitals in the process.

Velan, on the videotape, denied molesting the boy in April while on the way to McDonald's.

Velan remains free on bail. Blaney scheduled his sentencing for Dec. 12.