Michael Fugee, ex-Colts Neck priest, agrees to leave priesthood

NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Documents via The Star-Ledger

Read the consent order
Read the prosecutor’s press release
Read the archdiocese’s response
Read Michael Fugee’s confession to police.]

NEWARK — In a rare agreement with prosecutors, an ex-priest who worked in Colts Neck agreed to leave the priesthood after admitting to violating a court order barring him from unsupervised contact with minors.

Michael Fugee has agreed to seek laicization from the Roman Catholic Church as part of settling charges with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

Fugee, who served adults and children at St. Mary’s Church in Colts Neck, resigned from the Archdiocese of Newark in May. Prosecutors charged him with flouting a 2007 agreement that allowed him to return to ministry after being convicted on charges that he fondled a boy.

On Friday, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli slammed the archdiocese for not properly monitoring Fugee after he returned to the priesthood.

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