Ocean County Priest Found Guilty of Molesting Woman, but Not Her Kids

By Rob Spahr
NJ.com
October 16, 2014

http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2014/10/ocean_county_priest_found_guilty_of_molesting_woman_not_her_kids.html

A street view of the Church of the Visitation in Brick. The church's priest has been charged with sexual contact.

A Brick Township priest has been convicted of criminal sexual contact on a female parishioner, but was acquitted of six other crimes involving the alleged molestation of the woman's two children, Ocean County Prosecutor's Office Spokesman Al Della Fave said.

The jury announced its verdict in the trial of 66-year-old Marukudiyil Velan on Wednesday after deliberating for several hours over two days.

Della Fave said the priest likely faces only a probationary sentence and because the fourth-degree crime he was convicted of is not a Megan's Law offense, Velan will not be required to register with police.

"But hopefully with the jury's verdict his current vocation will nevertheless be impacted," Della Fave said via email.

Velan, better known as "Father Chris" in the Brick parish, has been an adjunct priest at the Church of the Visitation in Brick since 2001. A garden at the church is named after him.

In July 2012, Velan was charged with sexual assault and three counts of child endangerment after he allegedly grabbed a 13-year-old boy's genitals and fondled the boy's mother's breast during a visit at the family's home. He also allegedly molested the boy's 5-year-old sister, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Toms River defense attorney S. Karl Mohel told jurors that Velan became "a source of funds."

Mohel told NJ Advance Media that his client had a two-year relationship with the family, who lived near the church and was apparently poor, and had essentially adopted them – bringing them day-old pastries and taking them out to eat.

Mohel said the mother had already borrowed thousands of dollars from Velan to purchase a car and now mother and her boyfriend wanted to buy a house, which he said would be helped by proceeds from a civil lawsuit filed by the family against the priest, church and Diocese of Trenton.

On Wednesday, the jury asked to watch a videotape again on which, prosecutors claimed, the priest admits to improperly touching a mother and her two children in 2012.

However, Mohel argued that detectives badgered, cursed at and manipulated Velan until he confessed.

Velan admitted in the video to touching the mother's breast and acknowledged that he had done so in the past in the process of hugging her, the Asbury Park Press reported.

He also told the detectives that he was resisting the inappropriate moves of the children. He said it was the 5-year-old girl who took his hand and placed it on her inner thigh, near her private parts, but he moved it away. He told detectives the boy was rubbing up against him, but he pushed him away, touching the child's genitals in the process, the newspaper reported.

The jury's decision followed a three-day trial before Superior Court Judge James M. Blaney, which was attended by groups of parishioners supporting the priest.

Mohel told the Asbury Park Press that some of the 20 parishioners who were in the courtroom to support Velan wept when they heard the verdict.

Mohel said he was "happy" that Velan was acquitted on six charges.

"He was relived, very relieved, but he needed me to explain it and go through it with him, which I did," Mohel said of his client. "He's happy to have his life back."

Velan, who has been barred from the church since the accusations emerged, will now try to tend to his health, Mohel said.

Velan collapsed the week the trial was supposed to start and was hospitalized for five days at Community Medical Center.

"Right now our first step is to get him healthy again," Mohel said.

Velan had been dehydrated and exhausted, his attorney said.

"I think he was just worrying," he said. "He was definitely afraid of what could happen to him."

The next steps, Mohel said, will be to file a motion for a retrial on the sole charge he was convicted on, and added that since the start of the case Velan had always maintained his innocence.

"He's had this hanging over his head for two years,'' Mohel told the Asbury Park Press. "He's going to try to make some plans and take stock of his life. He can't work for the church anymore, and his whole life was the church."