NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post
Kathleen Hopkins, @Khopkinsapp 9:09 a.m. EDT October 16, 2014
TOMS RIVER – A jury on Wednesday convicted a popular Brick priest of groping a woman, but acquitted him of molesting her two children.
After deliberating about nine hours over two days, the panel of six men and six women announced its verdict about 5 p.m. in the trial of Marukudiyil Velan, better known to parishioners at Church of the Visitation in Brick as “Father Chris.”
The jury found Velan, 66, guilty of criminal sexual contact on the woman, among the least serious of the charges he faced, and acquitted him of six other crimes related to alleged molestation of the woman’s two children.
Velan’s attorney, S. Karl Mohel, said his client is unlikely to face prison because the offense he was convicted of, a fourth-degree crime, carries a presumption of no incarceration for people who do not have any prior criminal convictions. The crime, which carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison, is not a Megan’s Law offense, so the priest will not be required to register his whereabouts with police or be on parole for the rest of his life, Mohel said.
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