NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger
By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 21, 2013
HACKENSACK — Wearing a bright orange jump suit with the letters “BCJ Prisoner” on the back, the priest at the center of the furor in the archdiocese in Newark made his first court appearance this morning on charges he violated a court sanctioned ban on working with children.
The Rev. Michael Fugee, 52, stood for the brief hearing as Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Demetra Maurice read the seven counts against him.
Maurice is the prosecutor who reached an agreement with Fugee in 2007.
Bob Hoatson, a former priest in the Newark Archdiocese and head of a New Jersey support group called Road to Recovery, was in the courtroom this morning.
“I’m here to see a 10-year attempt to hold Fugee and the archdiocese accountable after they have been coddling him and moving him from place to place, and then arrogantly proclaiming he’s an innocent man,” Hoatson said. “The review board that returned him to ministry should be disbanded and we need a broom to sweep the archdiocese clean.”
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