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9 New Sex Abuse Suits Filed Against Newark Archdiocese, Report Says

The Newark Archdiocese on Monday was slapped with nine new lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by seven clerics, including one who has never before been publicly accused, NorthJersey.com reports.

St. Theresa in Kenilworth

St. Theresa in Kenilworth

Photo Credit: Google Maps

The suits were filed under a new law that expands the limitation period for claims by adults sexually abused while minors, and went into effect Dec. 1, 2019.

Included in the new set of lawsuits is Peter Russell, who has not been named in any suits up until now, NorthJersey.com says. He is accused of abusing a boy while stationed at St. Joseph's Regional High School in Montvale, in the 1980s. That suit also accuses Brother John Dagwell of abuse at the school.

The lawsuits also name the following:

  • Contardo Omarini, a member of a religious order, accused of abusing three boys from the same family in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Plainfield
  • Priest Joseph Rice, is accused of abusing a minor at St. John the Apostle in Linden from 1978 to 1981. He went on to serve as chaplain of Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus.
  • Kenneth Martin, a former Bayonne priest, accused of abusing a boy from 1981 to 1984. That was around the same time another survivor said he was abused by Martin, too. Martin was removed from ministry amid a national sex scandal in the church in 2001.
  • Gerald Sudol, formerly of St. Francis Assisi in Ridgefield Park. He was accused in three previous lawsuits Sudol of abusing youth before he entered the priesthood.
  • John Capparelli, who was fatally shot last year after being included in a list of credibly accused priests, is accused of abuse during his time at Holy Trinity in Westfield and St. Theresa in Kenilworth.

Click here for more from NorthJersey.com.

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