NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press
Written by
Gina Columbus
@ginacolumbusapp
COLTS NECK — John Santulli is upset to hear that a priest forbidden from having unsupervised contact with minors assisted with youth retreats sponsored by his parish, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church.
“I’m surprised that this is something that wasn’t brought to the parishioners’ attention,” said Santulli, a 38-year-old Colts Neck resident and father of two who does not know the man at the center of the controversy, the Rev. Michael Fugee. “If a sex offender is in the church, I’m surprised that they would let that kind of person around children.”
Fugee, 52, was convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual contact involving a New Jersey boy. An appeals court overturned the conviction, and the priest eventually entered the pretrial intervention program, a rehabilitation program for first-time offenders, after a memorandum of understanding was signed in 2007.
The two-year program was completed, said Maureen Parenta, a spokeswoman for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, but his criminal arrest record was not expunged, as such records sometimes are.
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