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Six accusing former Brick pastor of abuse
BY KATHLEEN HOPKINS
TOMS RIVER
BUREAU
TOMS RIVER — A Dover Township attorney has filed a lawsuit
seeking a total of $30 million in damages for six men who allege
they were molested as children by a minister at St. Thomas Lutheran
Church in Brick throughout the 1970s.
The lawsuit alleges the minister, identified in court papers only
by the initials R.L.S., used his position with the church on Salmon
Street to gain the trust of boys as young as 5 and then molest them.
It alleges another pastor of the church, identified in court papers
by the initials J.M.E., turned a blind eye to the misconduct,
allowing it to continue for years.
The lawsuit also alleges that the church itself has a policy of
masking the identities of pedophiles while allowing them to continue
working as ministers. Church officials denied that, but said it was
too early to comment on the molestation allegations against the
church's former pastor, whom they identified as Robert L. Slegel.
Civil suits involving molestation accusations against clergymen
have burgeoned in recent years, sparked in part by the highly
publicized criminal prosecution in 2002 of former Catholic priest
John Geoghan in Massachusetts.
In the months that followed Geoghan's conviction for fondling a
boy, hundreds of lawsuits were filed nationwide against the Catholic
Church, according to a nationwide review by the Associated Press.
The scandal has not been limited to the Catholic Church.
Christianity Today's Web site has reported settlements or jury
awards in the $30 million range in several states stemming from
allegations that Lutheran ministers sexually abused children.
Robert J. Fuggi, who filed the lawsuit in state Superior Court,
Toms River, against St. Thomas Lutheran Church, said he believes it
is the first such civil case in Ocean County.
The suit alleges "It was and is the policy of (the church) to
tolerate and keep secret the identities of pedophiles and other
sexual offenders as functioning pastors/ministers in the Lutheran
Church."
A statement issued by the church's congregation council said:
"St. Thomas Lutheran Church does not tolerate inappropriate sexual
behavior of any kind."
Slegel resigned as pastor of the parish in 1993 at age 64, after
his arrest in Lakewood on a charge of picking up an adult male
prostitute — a conviction that was later overturned because police
did not advise Slegel of his right to remain silent before he
confessed.
Six years later, Slegel was removed from the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America's official roster of clergy after an adult made an
allegation to the bishop of being molested by Slegel as a child,
according to the Rev. J. Bert Carlson, an interim associate pastor
at St. Thomas.
The suit, however, criticized how church officials handled the
allegations.
"It is specifically alleged upon information and belief that
church leaders, including defendant Rev. J.M.E., never viewed the
sexual assaults of children by pastors/ministers as moral failing,
rather it was treated as a secret that must be suppressed at the
expense of the youth of the church and the community."
Carlson said: "I absolutely believe that to be completely false.
There is not a toleration. There is not a blind eye."
He said the Rev. John M. Elstad was associate pastor at St.
Thomas during the 1970s, when Slegel was the senior pastor. Elstad,
now 68, rose to the position of senior pastor upon Slegel's
resignation, and he retired from the parish after 30 years in 1994.
Carlson said Elstad had an unblemished record.
"He was sued because he was here," Carlson said.
Michael Gilberti, the attorney defending Elstad against the
allegations in the lawsuit, pointed out that Slegel was Elstad's
superior, so Elstad — who still lives in New Jersey — was not in a
position to supervise or discipline him.
Regarding the alleged molestation, Gilberti said, "Reverend
Elstad didn't know anything or have any reason to know anything was
going on."
The St. Thomas congregation said it believes Slegel has moved out
of state. Fuggi said he believes Slegel is living in North Carolina.
A man who answered a call placed to a telephone listing for
Robert L. Slegel in Kitty Hawk, N.C., said the reverend was out of
town. The man said he would try to get a message to him, but the
telephone call was not returned.
The 54-count lawsuit is 198 pages. Named as defendants in it are
R.L.S.; J.M.E.; St. Thomas Lutheran Church; a group of approximately
192 Evangelical Lutheran churches known as the New Jersey Synod; the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; as well as unidentified, as
currently unknown individuals, bishops and corporations.
The plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit only by their initials.
They all lived in Brick when the alleged molestation occurred, Fuggi
said.
According to the lawsuit and additional information provided by
Fuggi, the first plaintiff, now 42, of Brick, alleges he was
molested from 1970 to 1978, when he was between 6 and 14 years old.
The second plaintiff, now 40, of Brick, alleges he was molested
between 1975 and 1979, when he was between 9 and 13 years old.
The third plaintiff, now 39, of Brick, alleges he was molested
between 1973 and 1980, when he was between 6 and 13. The fourth
plaintiff, now 40, of Lacey, alleges he was molested between 1973
and 1980, when he was between 7 and 14.
The fifth plaintiff, now 41, of Brick, claims he was molested
between 1970 and 1979, when he was between 5 and 14. The sixth
plaintiff, now 41, of Boca Raton, Fla., claims he was molested
between 1970 and 1974, when he was between 5 and 9.
The suit alleges that R.L.S. would cultivate the trust of the
plaintiffs by offering them use of the church's gymnasium and
sporting equipment and also inviting them to accompany him to either
the balcony or the pews of the church, where he would fondle them
and himself.
The pastor also would invite the boys to his office to play games
such as tick-tack-toe and hangman, the suit said. During the games,
the pastor would ask the boys to sit on his lap, the suit alleged.
R.L.S. made one of the plaintiffs "feel special" by doing things
like taking the boy out on his boat, the suit said. The pastor
allowed the boy to steer the boat after directing him to sit on his
lap, the suit alleged.
R.L.S. would tell the boys after the fondling "to never tell
anyone of "our' games," or they would be in trouble, the suit said.
The suit alleged that J.M.E. and other church officials should
have known about and warned the plaintiffs or their parents of
R.L.S.'s "propensity to engage in such activities."
The congregation, in its statement, said neither the church nor
any of its members "had any prior knowledge of Slegel's behavior
with the plaintiffs as alleged in the lawsuit."
The plaintiffs had repressed memories of the molestation until
around 2004, when one of them began discussing it with the others,
Fuggi said.
"They were childhood friends," Fuggi said of the plaintiffs. "One
of the friends had confronted one of the other friends and asked,
"Did this ever happen to you?'
"They contacted each other one by one and got together and
discussed it . . . and they contacted me," Fuggi said.
There is a two-year limit in New Jersey from the time of an
injury, or the reasonable discovery of it, for a plaintiff to file a
lawsuit, Fuggi said. He added he hopes to show in court that the
plaintiffs in this case could not have discovered their injuries
until around 2004 because of their repressed memories.
Executive Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Robert A. Gasser said
authorities have not been contacted about the alleged molestation.
Even if they had been, the five-year statute of limitations to
prosecute a crime has long passed, he said.
Kathleen Hopkins: (732) 557-5732 or khopkins@app.com
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