Witness comes to defense of Little Ferry priest accused of pointing rifle at boy

By Linda Moss
Record
October 5, 2015

http://www.northjersey.com/news/witness-comes-to-defense-of-little-ferry-priest-accused-of-pointing-rifle-at-boy-1.1425299

The Rev. Kevin Carter greets parishioners after Mass at St. Margaret of Cortona in Little Ferry on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015.

LITTLE FERRY — Blasting law enforcement officials, an eyewitness Sunday disputed the Bergen County prosecutor’s allegation that a Catholic priest aimed an unloaded replica of a Civil War rifle at an 8-year-old boy last month. .

Richard Fritzky, an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, came to the defense of the Rev. Kevin Carter, 54, pastor of St. Margaret of Cortona Church in the borough.

“I neither saw Father Kevin raise the rifle nor threaten anyone,” said Fritzky, former president of the Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce.

At Masses on Sunday, parishioners also voiced support for the priest and applauded when he began the services by reading a statement maintaining his innocence. Carter told his congregation that the charges reflect misinterpreted “jesting” between him — a fervent New York Giants fan — and the boy, who came to church wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey. One churchgoer called the person who reported Carter to authorities a “Judas.”

Carter was arrested Friday on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated assault. He allegedly pointed a firearm at the boy on Sept. 13.

In a press release, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Carter had asked to see the victim, who has not been identified publicly, in a rectory room, had him stand against a wall, then pointed the functioning long gun at the child, indicating that he would shoot.

“When I heard of the arrest, I deemed it to be impossible, for what rational person could ever possibly have leveled such a fallacious charge?” Fritzky said.

Molinelli said there were witnesses to the incident. But Fritzky, who said he saw the incident, indicated he had not been interviewed. Reading a statement to reporters over the phone, Fritzky said he was at St. Margaret’s that day to speak at the Masses, and that he and Carter are  fellow Civil War buffs. Fritzky said the priest had taken out the rifle, which wasn’t loaded, to show him in the rectory.

Carter was taking the rifle back upstairs when the alleged victim and his mother walked down the hallway that connects the rectory to the church, Fritzky said. The boy was wearing a Cowboys shirt on the same day that the Giants were playing Dallas. Fritzky said he saw what happened next while sitting in a room to the right of the hallway’s end and could clearly see Carter to his left.

The priest “feigned being struck and hurt that anyone would dare come into his home with Cowboys colors on,” Fritzky said.

“And he loudly and good-naturedly teased the boy, who had quite apparently come to do the same to Father Kevin,” Fritzky said. “It was all loud and good humored and fun and nothing but, as everyone involved — including the boy — was clearly laughing — in fact, boisterously, so it seemed to me. I neither saw Father Kevin raise the rifle nor threaten anyone.

“When I heard of the arrest, I deemed it to be impossible, for what rational person could ever possibly have leveled such a fallacious charge?” Fritzky said.

In an email Sunday, Molinelli said he didn’t know where Fritzky was at the time of the incident and that “we would not call everyone in for statements who did not witness it.”

The prosecutor said, “Mass was about to begin and I am sure that there were a lot of people there that did not witness it.”

Molinelli previously said the charges against Carter were warranted and that the priest should not get special treatment.

Fritzky didn’t take any questions and Carter declined to comment. But the priest’s attorney, Harold Cassidy, said Carter is scheduled to be arraigned  Tuesday afternoon. Cassidy said he will enter a not-guilty plea on his client’s behalf.

Cassidy said he decided to solicit a statement from Fritzky because of comments made by Molinelli, including that the alleged victim had been frightened during the incident.

“There has been a significant amount of publicity that is adverse to Father Carter and prejudicial,” Cassidy said. “The judgment I made was that the prejudice is too great not to be able correct the record.”

The lawyer said there were about eight witnesses to the incident, and that the boy and his family didn’t bring any complaint. One of the witnesses sent an email to the Archdiocese of Newark on Sept. 25, Cassidy said, and the archdiocese forwarded that information to the prosecutor on Sept. 28. Cassidy said he believed that at least three of the witnesses, including Fritzky, were not interviewed by the Prosecutor’s Office.

“There is no question that this was an innocent banter between a Cowboy fan and the family of the boy and the Father, who is a Giants fan,” Cassidy said. “So when somebody saw the young fellow with the Cowboy jersey, they thought it was a great opportunity to rib Father about the game that day, between the Cowboys and the Giants. So the family initiated the discussion and sought to initiate an exchange, a good-natured ribbing, between the two of them. … It’s incorrect to think the child was in fear. He was not.”

Fritzky described the weapon as a reproduction of a Civil War musket that had to be loaded with gunpowder. The musket, gunpowder and ammunition were recovered by police.

Several parishioners defended Carter after the noon Mass.

“You hear what the news outlets say and hopefully there will be some more information out, but we’d like to believe that a lot of it’s misinterpreted,” said Robin Sebastian of Little Ferry. “Something maybe got out of hand or someone took it the wrong way.”

He described Carter as “a good priest” and “a good man.”

Another churchgoer, who didn’t want to be identified, also stuck up for Carter.

“I think he didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “Everything was done in a fun way. And I think the individual who reported him was a heinous Judas.”

Pat Forte of Little Ferry said she was aware that the priest was a Civil War buff and that his “kidding” was misinterpreted.

Another parishioner said the incident stemmed from “a joke,” although it may have turned out to be “a bad joke.”