'He destroyed my life': Fourth alleged victim of priest settles sex abuse case with Trenton Diocese

By Mark Mueller
NJ.com
October 27, 2014

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/priest_sex_abuse_mcalinden_diocese_of_trenton.html

The Rev. Terence McAlinden, left, admitted under oath in a separate legal case that he routinely slept nude with teenage boys. The suspended priest has declined to comment on the allegations.

From left, Patrick Newcombe, Bob Markulic and Chris Naples appear at a press conference in Little Egg Harbor in 2007 to discuss allegations of priest sex abuse by the Rev. Terence McAlinden. All three men settled with the Diocese of Trenton.

John Tominus, wearing red pants in foreground, is seen here as a child with his grandparents and brothers. Tominus, now 48, says he was molested for three years by the Rev. Terence McAlinden.

The Diocese of Trenton has settled a fourth sex abuse claim against a former director of the diocese’s youth group, paying $180,000 to a Florida man who says the priest molested him for three years in the 1980s.

John Tominus, who grew up in Keyport and who now lives in Seminole, Fla., reached agreement with the diocese in September, one month after another alleged victim of the priest, the Rev. Terence McAlinden, settled a lawsuit for $610,000.

Tominus, 48, said McAlinden sexually assaulted him more than 50 times, beginning when he was 14 and continuing until his family moved out of state when he was 17.

“He introduced me to my first drink -- made me drink Scotch,” said Tominus, who has struggled with alcoholism for decades. “He sodomized me. He threatened me. He destroyed my life. My life could have been perfect. He took it away from me.”

McAlinden, now 73 and living in Little Egg Harbor, has never been criminally charged with sexual abuse. In at least one case, authorities investigated him but found the alleged events took place too long ago to be prosecuted.

In 2007, after one of McAlinden’s accusers came forward, church officials permanently suspended the priest, finding the abuse claims to be credible. McAlinden has admitted in court papers he routinely slept nude with teenage boys and bathed with them naked in a hot tub. He could not be reached for comment.

Tominus marks the fourth person to publicly accuse McAlinden of sexual assault. Chris Naples, who received the $610,000 settlement in August, says McAlinden molested him for more than a decade in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Another alleged victim, Bob Markulic, settled with the diocese in 2012. The fourth accuser, Patrick Newcombe, first complained to the diocese in 1989, he has said. He received a settlement in 1992.

The men and their advocates have been sharply critical of the diocese for allowing McAlinden to continue serving as a priest for 15 years after Newcombe came forward.

McAlinden’s fate now rests with the Vatican, which will ultimately decide whether to remove him from the priesthood.

Rayanne Bennett, a spokeswoman for Trenton Bishop David. M. O’Connell, confirmed the settlement with Tominus but declined to say if the diocese had heard from additional accusers beyond the four publicly known.

“We will not comment further on other settlements or victims, other than to say that any complaint of abuse that has been brought forward involving any church personnel has been handled with strict adherence to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth and the Memorandum of Understanding with local prosecutors,” Bennett said.

The agreement with prosecutors requires New Jersey’s five dioceses to immediately report allegations of sexual abuse.

Bennett urged victims or those who have knowledge of abuse to contact authorities or the diocese’s abuse hotline at 1-888-296-2965.

Tominus was a 14-year-old altar boy at St. Joseph’s Parish in Keyport when he met McAlinden, then assistant director of the diocese’s youth group. Tominus said McAlinden befriended him and enlisted him to help out around Jerramiah House, the youth group’s headquarters in Keyport.

The abuse began, Tominus said, after McAlinden learned the teen had stolen change from a soda machine he was responsible for restocking after Bingo nights at St. Joseph’s.

“Even though I had been grounded by my parents, he was saying he could put me away in the Jamesburg Training School for boys,” Tominus said, referring to a state-run youth detention center. “He said he would take me away from my parents and my brothers and sisters, and that’s when he touched me for the first time. I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do.”

That first attack, Tominus said, occurred in the basement of Jerramiah House. Over the next three years, he said, McAlinden molested him at a home he owned in Keyport, at the home of the priest’s parents in Toms River, in a van McAlinden owned and on McAlinden’s boat, the Poor Box.

Tominus said he told St. Joseph’s pastor, the Rev. Vincent Lloyd, about the attacks, asking for his help.

“He told me to keep my mouth shut and that everything would get better,” Tominus said, adding that Lloyd died about a year later.

Tominus said the abuse ended when his family moved to Pennsylvania, but he said he was never right afterward. He drank heavily, acted out and couldn’t abide being touched.

Over the years, he was arrested for assault, theft, receiving stolen property, drunken driving, driving without a license, providing a false name to law enforcement and other offenses. Tominus said he also was institutionalized for a time to treat mental health issues.

Greg Gianforcaro, a Phillipsburg lawyer who represented Tominus with Boston-based lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, said his client has been haunted for decades by McAlinden’s alleged abuse.

“There’s no doubt McAlinden did a number on him,” Gianforcaro said. “It took a lot of courage for him to stand up and be heard.”