New Jersey Priest Suspended after Being Accused of Molesting Two Teenagers

By Laurie Hanna
New York Daily News
January 16, 2016

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nj-priest-suspended-child-molestation-allegations-article-1.2498833

The Rev. Michael Walters is accused of molesting two minors in the 1980s. He has denied the allegations.

An assistant pastor at a New Jersey church has been accused of sexually assaulting two minors in the early 1980s.

The Rev. Michael Walters, parochial vicar at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in South Orange, has now been removed from ministry while the allegations are investigated.

Walters is accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy at St. Cassian Church in Montclair in 1982 and a 13-year-old girl in 1982 and 1983.

The accused priest vehemently denies the allegations, said Archdiocese of Newark spokesman Jim Goodness.

"He said nothing had happened, that he did not do this," Goodness told NJ.com.

David Ohlmuller, an alleged victim, is pictured in a collage of photos from when he was a child in the 1980s.

Walters, 60, left ministry by mutual agreement with the archdiocese in October, and has also has given up two archdiocese-wide positions.

David Ohlmuller claims Walters fondled him when he was an altar boy in a confessional on at least 10 occasions in 1982, when he was 12.

Ohlmuller, 46, claimed Walters also kissed him on the lips and gave him wine at the church.

"He said not to tell anyone about what was happening, that nobody would believe me," said Ohlmuller.

Our Lady of Sorrows Church in South Orange, New Jersey.

Ohlmuller said he eventually stopped attending the church and later developed anxiety, depression and substance abuse problems.

Ohlmuller said he wanted to confront his troubled past and added: “I couldn't live with this any longer. My aim is to get him (Walters) out of the priesthood."

He is being represented by attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of accusers since the clergy sex abuse scandal first broke in 2002.

Garabedian said he also represents a second accuser, a woman now in her mid-40s, who claims Walters molested her twice during the same time period, when she was 13 and 14.

The archdiocese informed the Essex County Prosecutor's Office of the sexual assault allegations after Garabedian filed notice of a possible suit, a spokeswoman for the law enforcement agency confirmed.

Contact: lhanna@nydailynews.com