NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter
[press release – Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office]
Brian Roewe | Nov. 8, 2013
In an agreement with county prosecutors, the priest at the center of a clergy sex abuse scandal in the Newark, N.J., archdiocese has agreed to leave the priesthood to avoid criminal prosecution related to his violation of a court order forbidding contact with children.
In a press release, first reported by the New Jersey Star Ledger, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli announced Friday that Fr. Michael Fugee had admitted to violating restrictions placed upon him in 2007 that barred him from contact with minors. From April 2010 through December 2012, Fugee attended several youth retreats and heard, on at least seven different occasions, confessions from children.
Rather than pursue the five, fourth-degree criminal contempt charges it brought against the priest, the prosecutor’s office and Fugee agreed that he would “seek and obtain” laicization from the priesthood. The fourth-degree charges carried a punishment of a fine and maximum 18 months in prison. Molinelli indicated that had his office sought Fugee’s conviction, the soon-to-be former priest likely would have received a probation sentence, since he had no prior convictions.
Molinelli said the agreement prohibits Fugee from presenting himself as a spiritual advisor or “working with children in any capacity.
“This is a requirement that will eliminate the threat of Michael Fugee, ever again, obtaining the trust of people through his clerical position nor using his ordained position as a Priest to exert improper contact with children,” he said in the release.
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