NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Herald
By BRUCE A. SCRUTON and ASSOCIATED PRESS
bscruton@njherald.com
An array of local authorities — police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors and town Boy Scout leaders among them — quietly shielded scoutmasters and others nationwide who allegedly molested children, according to a newly opened trove of confidential files compiled from 1959 to 1985.
At the time, those authorities justified their actions as necessary to protect the good name and good works of Scouting. But as detailed in 14,500 pages of secret “perversion files” released Thursday by order of the Oregon Supreme Court, their maneuvers protected suspected sexual predators while victims suffered in silence.
The files document sex abuse allegations across the country, from a small town in the Adirondacks to downtown Los Angeles.
The only Sussex County individual on the list is the Rev. William N. Cramer, who, according to the entry, was “Catholic priest who admits to fondling two boys in the bedroom of their home (ages 11 and 14).”
At the time, Cramer was an associate pastor with Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, where he was first assigned in 1977.
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