Man Allegedly Sexually Assaulted by Priest Continues to Seek Justice

By Samantha York
WLBZ
April 17, 2017

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/Man%20allegedly%20sexually%20assaulted%20by%20priest%20continues%20to%20seek%20justice

[with video]

Neal Gumpel was allegedly sexually assaulted by a priest at Maine Maritime Academy is 1974 -- it took him decades to open up about the incident, but now he is seeking justice and an advocacy group from New Jersey is helping.

”We're looking for more victims of a professor of Maine Maritime who abused children” Robert Hoatson said as he passed fliers out to everyone that walked and drove by him in downtown Castine. Hoatson is the president of Road to Recovery -- an organization dedicated to helping sexual assault victims seek justice and find peace. Now he is doing his part to help Neal Gumpel -- who says he was molested at Maine Maritime Academy 44 years ago. Those allegations are against Father Roy Drake.

"We're appealing to Maine Maritime and the Jesuits, especially of New England, to do something right for a change" Hoatson said.

Hoatson believes spreading the word -- even all these years later -- can motivate other victims to come forward. Gumpel was afraid to talk about his alleged assault for decades -- he stated it is the root of his depression and substance abuse problems. Now he protests in front of the Jesuit headquarters in New York and even hired a lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, a couple of years ago and met with Jesuit officials. Gumpel claims they refused to publicly apologize or settle with him. They have settled with another of Drake's victims.