New sex abuse lawsuit will name a Newark Archdiocese priest previously accused

North Jersey Record
March 07, 2019

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2019/03/07/sex-abuse-lawsuit-name-newark-nj-archdiocese-priest-accused/3096848002/

Robert Hoatson, co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, holds a sign reading "there are more than 70" in reference to sexual abuse cases against New Jersey priests, as the Archdiocese of Newark holds a meeting regarding this list of abusive priests on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019. Photo by Danielle Parhizkaran

An attorney representing victims of clergy abuse says he plans to file a "significant childhood sexual abuse" lawsuit Friday against the Archdiocese of Newark and a Union County Catholic parish. 

The suit will allege that the Rev. Kevin Gugliotta sexually abused a child while Gugliotta served as the head of youth ministry at St. Bartholomew the Apostle parish in Scotch Plains, a position he retained after the Archdiocese was told that Gugliotta was a predator, according to attorney Greg Gianforcaro. 

Gugliotta, who was named on a list of credibly accused priests released by the Newark Archdiocese in February, had been removed from ministry after being charged with possession of child pornography at his vacation home in Pennsylvania. Gugliotta told probation officers that he collected the pornography to get "revenge" on God for his poker losses, according to records.

Even before the child pornography case, Gugliotta had once stepped down from ministry after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor. The accusation, lodged in 2003, involved abuse that was alleged to have occurred in the 1980s, before Gugliotta was ordained as a priest.

The Archdiocese then reinstated Gugliotta in 2004, ruling that he could not be punished because the abuse was alleged to have occurred before he became a priest.

In the later child pornography case, he was sentenced to jail in Pennsylvania in 2017, after pleading guilty to a single count of disseminating child pornography.

Gianforcaro said in a media advisory that he and another victim of Gugliotta's had alerted the Archdiocese that Gugliotta was a predator even before he allegedly abused the victim involved in the suit being filed Friday.

Gugliotta "was sent to another parish [St. Bartholomew's in Scotch Plains] by the Archdiocese after they had been advised that Gugliotta was a predator," Gianforcaro said.   "Despite this knowledge, the Archdiocese permitted Gugliotta to act as the head of youth ministry at St. Bartholomew’s, where he gained access to my client that enabled Gugilotta to sexually abuse my client."

"This should be wake-up call that sexual abuse by clergy has NOT stopped,” Gianforcaro said in the media advisory.

Gugliotta was a priest at Church of the Immaculate Conception in Mahwah for 16 months, ending in August 2016, according to his LinkedIn page. 

Gianforcaro previously said he was told Gugliotta had been suspended at some point but that he does not remember where he was serving at the time. He said he learned in 2016, after Gugliotta was arrested on child pornography charges, that he had been reinstated years earlier.

"It was only because of his arrest that we learned he was returned to ministry," Gianforcaro said.

Maria Margiotta,a spokeswoman for the Newark Archdiocese, said in an email last month that Gugliotta "is currently being monitored and supervised by the state authorities in Pennsylvania as a result of his conviction."

The priest was working at Holy Spirit parish in Union when he was arrested in 2016.

He previously worked at Immaculate Conception and at Ramapo College in Mahwah, St. Bartholomew in Scotch Plains, St. Joseph in West Orange, St. Elizabeth in Wyckoff and St. Rose of Lima in Short Hills.

Gianforcaro plans to release the complaint at St. Bartholomew's on Friday.