Author Archive

In a pattern that critics say mirrors nationwide trends, at least seven priests have been moved from Long Island to other dioceses after they were accused of sexually abusing children.  It is a practice that experts say can be dangerous to the community, and one that Long Island church officials now say they will no longer condone.

THE ACCUSED PRIESTS

A look at the seven priests who have been accused of sexual abuse on Long Island and who have since been moved.

Matthew Fitzgerald, 61

Time of Alleged

In a pattern that critics say mirrors nationwide trends, at least seven priests have been moved from Long Island to other dioceses after they were accused of sexually abusing children.  It is a practice that experts say can be dangerous to the community, and one that Long Island church officials now say they will no longer condone.  

THE ACCUSED PRIESTS

A look at the seven priests who have been accused of sexual abuse on Long Island and who have since been moved.

Matthew Fitzgerald, 61

Time of Alleged

Rev. James Smith is accused of molesting a Long Island woman when she was 10 or 11 years old at a Queens Catholic School.  The woman, Carol Poppito, now 41, said he admitted his perverse behavior in a letter to her, writing I don’t blame you if you curse me.  She said Smith had warned her, Don’t tell anybody, and Don’t tell your father, a police lieutenant, about the abuse.  She said it wasn’t until she was on a car trip with her mother and other family members in 1991

As Cardinal Edward Egan prepares to leave for Rome for a meeting with Pope John Paul II to discuss the sexual abuse scandal, he issued an apology yesterday saying he is deeply sorry if any mistakes were made in handling cases of abuse by priests in either the Archdiocese of New York of the Diocese of Bridgeport.

(New York)

Larry Howell, of Erlanger, Ky., has been charged with nine counts of sodomy.  Investigators believe he molested as many as 20 boys between the ages of 12 and 15.  He allegedly lured children to his home with gifts and money in exchange for sexual favors.  Two days after his arrest on November 30, 2001, a woman shot Howell in the groin, just moments after he was released from jail on bond.  Howell allegedly molested the woman son.  The woman admitted to the shooting in court but will not go to

Nassau police are searching for a man they say entered an unlocked bedroom window of a basement apartment in Hempstead and attempted to sodomize the 10 year old boy he found sleeping there.  Third Squad Detective William Gray said the man apparently had been watching the boy and the house for some time before making his entry on Thursday.  The man had taken off his clothes outside the boy’s window and slipped into the room where the boy was sleeping on a blanket between his bed and the window and