Priest who served at boy scout camp in Long Lake accused of sexual assault

The New Jersey Star-Ledger is reporting that a Roman Catholic Priest who served at the Sabbatis Adventure Camp in the Adirondacks has been sued for sexual abuse, including assaults that allegedly occurred at the Boy Scout operated facility.

For nearly two decades, he was known as Father John, the Roman Catholic priest who passed out skimpy, tight-fitting bathing suits to young wrestlers and snapped pictures by the thousands.

Sometimes, he’d join in the bouts, donning a Speedo himself and grappling with teenage boys, one accuser said.

Amid claims of inappropriate conduct — and after a months-long stay at a treatment center for troubled clergy members — the Rev. John M. Capparelli was suspended from ministry by the Archdiocese of Newark in 1992.

He later started a fetish website that sold videos of buff young men engaged in erotic wrestling, corporate records show.

According to the newspaper, Capparelli now teaches math to 9th graders in Newark, New Jersey, and is a member of the teachers’ union.

His accuser, 48 year old Andrew Dundorf, worked with the priest at the Long Lake camp for three summers in the 1980s.

This again from the Star-Ledger:

Select young men — typically blond and fit like Dundorf — were invited into Capparelli’s residence to wrestle in Speedos, according to the suit.

To Bob Johnson, who worked as a Scout leader and who would later take over as camp director, the behavior was worrisome.

Johnson, a former Plainfield resident now living in Easton, Pa., said he told his son, a camper, to stay away from Capparelli’s wrestling matches.

“I saw patterns that concerned me, and other people did as well,” Johnson, now 73, said in an interview. “You could get vibes from some of the kids. That was not a place they wanted to be.”

Read the full article here.

Tags: ,

9 Comments on “Priest who served at boy scout camp in Long Lake accused of sexual assault”

Leave a Comment
  1. Pete Klein says:

    This is a bit weird. If all that was done is some wrestling, what’s the big deal.
    Personally, I think the so called swimsuits for men nowadays are a bit strange. The girls are expected to wear a bikini while the guys wear sloppy summer PJ’s.
    Are the guys afraid of showing what they don’t have?

  2. Peter Collinge says:

    First, a correction. While the article in the New Jersey Star-Ledger does use the name “Sabattis Scout Reservation,” it is clear from that article that these incidents were alleged to take place at Sabattis Adventure Camp. That is a camp run by the Patriot’s Path Council of the Boy Scouts in New Jersey, and has NO connection (other than geographic proximity) to Sabattis Scout Reservation, run by the Longhouse Council out of Syracuse.

    Second, it’s important to note that the alleged incidents took place sometime in the 1980’s. In the mid-to-late-1980’s, the Boy Scouts of America enacted some of the most strict Youth Protection policies of any organization in the country, and those policies are stricter yet now. These include criminal background checks for adult leaders, mandatory two-deep leadership at all times, immediate criminal reporting of any alleged sexual abuse, and abusers being permanently banned from the Boy Scouts of America nation-wide. So while the alleged activities may have happened and if so were inexcusable, it is much less likely that they could happen today within the Boy Scouts of America, and any report of such activities would be investigated immediately with appropriate steps taken to protect the youth involved.

  3. Mervel says:

    This of course is horrible.

    However it is also interesting in that we see how two different large institutions handled allegations of sex abuse in this particular case.

    Of course the headline says Priest not 9th grade public school teacher.

  4. Pete Klein says:

    I find it interesting these alleged abuses took place about 25 years ago. Is the accuser out of work and now needs some money?
    When they say it’s not about money, it’s about money.

  5. Peter Hahn says:

    except when its about sex

  6. Mervel says:

    I don’t think we should ever take shots at the motivations of an accuser, sex abuse victims usually take many decades to come to grips with what has happened and the internal fortitude to make an accusation. At 15 most boys are not going to say much of anything or girls for that matter.

    But this guy is certainly a freak that does not belong around children or teenagers, his fetish website was public knowledge did the school check him out? How long has he been allowed to be around 9th graders in his current position? I mean if he was wrestling in speedo’s with teenage boys 25 years ago, he is still molesting today.

    It is an interesting case study on how our institutions still are not handling abuse correctly. The Catholic Church has failed in many ways in handling these cases however just thinking this is a Catholic issue will take our eyes of the problem of sex abuse in society at large.

  7. Brian says:

    The length of time it takes for these predators to be accused is worrisome. I was an Alter Boy 42 years ago. I am now a Boy Scout Leader. And I would think it’s virtually impossible for a predator to infiltrate the BSA these days. But am I going to wake up some morning and think, “OMG” i was sexually abused by a Priest when I was 14! I just remembered! Not that i’m defending the bad Priests because they should have been jailed long ago and not protected by the Church. But some of these cases sound a bit fishy to me.

  8. Mervel says:

    I think you have to investigate the accusation; everyone deserves protections against false accusations and this is why you must investigate and I think this is why this is so hard. You throw in large sums of money and yeah it is even more difficult. But I don’t think people wake up at 50 and just remember they were molested at 15. People know they were molested and just try not to think about it or they normalize it or they self medicate to help them not think about it. Consistent molestation over time; has serious impacts on people their whole life.

    But come on, think back when you were a 14 year old guy, would you want to advertise the fact that a man molested you? All of your friends would know, your family, your grand parents, would they believe you?

    Anyway it is a tough topic but we need to address it. I am a practicing Catholic and I want it addressed to make the Church better, but I also know that Priests are no more likely to molest children than teachers or boy scout leaders or ministers or any other group that works with children. The issue is how the institution handles the accusations.

  9. Pete Klein says:

    Actually the number one sexual molesters are members of the family: fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunt, uncles and friends of the family. Most of this is hidden and there is no money in it.
    I might add that – and here I admit to guessing – that most child pornography is produced and sold by the same family and extended family members.

Leave a Reply