Friday, December 09, 2016

Vatican Investigated Sex Abuse Allegations Against Former Wyckoff Priest, Report Says

Vatican Investigated Sex Abuse Allegations Against Former Wyckoff Priest, Report SaysThe former priest of township parish was investigated on allegations that he molested a 16-year-old boy and suspended from ministry as a lay person in the mid-1980s. 

Rev. Kevin A. Gugliotta, 54, was investigated when he was a Boy Scout leader and engineer, but the Vatican ruled that canon law, church law, prevented him from being punished because he was not an ordained priest yet, a report by NJ.com states. 

He became ordained in 1996.

Gugliotta was reinstated in December 2004 and served at five parishes, including St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Wyckoff and Immaculate Conception Church in Mahwah, before asking for a transfer this past summer, according to the NJ.com report.

Gugliotta allegedly fondled the boy against his will and stalked him into adulthood, the report said.

Gugliotta is a nationally ranked poker player. 

He was arrested on dozens of child sexual abuse counts in October. 

He allegedly possessed and disseminated child pornography after authorities investigated someone uploading child pornography to an internet chat room in Lehigh Township, Pennsylvania, where Gugliotta has a residence.

Gugliotta remains incarcerated in Pennsylvania in lieu of $1 million bail.