NEW JERSEY
Roman Catholic Diocese of New Jersey
In response to today’s announcement from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office concerning the conclusion of the matter of Michael C. Fugee, James Goodness issued the following:
The Bergen County Prosecutor and Grand Jury have completed their investigation into the matter of Michael Fugee. The Grand Jury determined that there was no basis for any criminal proceedings against Michael Fugee. The Archdiocese’s position has remained consistent throughout the investigation: the Archdiocese did not violate the terms of the Fugee Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) and never authorized or condoned Fugee’s unauthorized actions that led to the Prosecutor’s investigation.
Throughout the past nine months, the Archdiocese of Newark has cooperated fully with the investigation. The Archdiocese has produced hundreds of documents. The Archbishop and other Archdiocesan staff have answered every question asked of them either by the Prosecutor’s staff or the Grand Jury. At all times, the Archdiocese has complied fully with the investigation process.
When the allegations that gave rise to the Fugee matter first surfaced in early 2001, Archbishop Myers was not Archbishop of Newark. At the time of the Archbishop’s arrival in October 2001, Fugee already was out of ministry and remained so throughout the time of his trial and appeal.
We are quite frankly stunned that the Prosecutor would even suggest, much less state outright, that the Archdiocese “did not nor would ever obtain” laicization of Michael Fugee, since there is direct evidence as well as Grand Jury testimony by the Archbishop that he had begun setting the preliminary groundwork for laicization.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.