NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
By Rob Spahr | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 15, 2014
TOMS RIVER – The fate of a Brick priest on trial for molestation charges could come down to a video tape.
A jury in the trial of Marukudiyil Velan, of the Church of the Visitaion in Brick, asked Ocean County Superior Court Judge James Blaney on Tuesday to watch a videotape again on which, prosecutors claim, the priest admits to improperly touching a mother and her two children in 2012, the Asbury Park Press reported.
However, Velan’s defense attorney argues that maintains detectives badgered, cursed at and manipulated Velan until he confessed, the newspaper reported.
Velan, 66, better known as “Father Chris” in the Brick parish, has been a adjunct priest at the Church of the Visitation in Brick since 2001. A garden at the church is named after him.
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