Br. Joseph Alfonse Comperchio

Reportedly was a Holy Cross Brother at Notre Dame, South Bend IN for one year. Continued to use the name “Brother Joe” as a Catholic school teacher after leaving the order. In 1/2019 the Lansing Diocese received an allegation that Comperchio had sexually abused a 3rd- to 6th-grade boy at St. John the Evangelist School in Jackson MI in 1973-1976. Comperchio’s accuser said he saw Comperchio sexually assaulting four other boys while in fifth grade. He said that when he was 21 he reported the abuse to a priest at St. Johns, but no action. In 12/2019 police were told by a man that he was sexually abused by Comperchio in 1977 as a St. John’s 6th-grader. He said he believed that Comperchio also sexually abused his friend. The man also told investigators that he confronted Comperchio as an adult in 2000, while on a business trip to Boston, and Comperchio apologized. Comperchio had moved to Boston MA in the late 1970s or early 1980s, after which he relocated to Ft. Meyers, FL; he taught there at a private school. In 2/2020 an investigator interviewed a man the Diocese said may have been a victim; the man acknowledged that he was abused. In 2/2020 a woman told police that Comperchio touched her breast in a St. John’s bathroom when she was a young student there. A classmate witness to the incident said he touched her also, all over, when instructing her to do a “banana dance” during class. (He was a drama teacher.) Comperchio was arrested 9/14/2020 in Fort Myers. He admitted to the abuse and was extradited to MI. Pleaded guilty in 6/2021. Sentenced in 8/2021 to 10-20 years in prison and to register as a sex offender. He died 6/2/2022.