Former CamCo Priest Charged

A former Camden County priest has been arrested in Stuart, Fla., and charged with sexually abusing a young boy.

James Hopkins, 60, was a priest in the Camden diocese for more than 20 years serving in numerous parishes.

He has been accused by a former altar boy and charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child for incidents authorities say occurred in 1995.

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi did not identify the victim, now 17, in the criminal case except by his initials, J.N. However, the priest's accuser, Jonathon Norton, a senior at Hammonton High School, announced in October that Hopkins had abused him.

Norton said that Hopkins was a family friend, his priest and even a grandfather figure. Norton met Hopkins as an altar boy at St. Peters Catholic Church and said that Hopkins began sexually assaulting him in May 1995 at his family home and in his car. Norton said that Hopkins threatened him to keep him silent.

"Growing up in a Catholic church and going to Catholic school, you learn a priest is God on earth and everything they say is right and true, and that's what I learned and didn't think there was anything to lie about. I thought he knew what was right," Norton said.

Andrew J. Walton, a spokesman for the Diocese of Camden, said Hopkins was removed from the priesthood and reported to the prosecutor's office in 1995 over allegations that he abused the older brother of the teen who is the alleged victim in the new charges. He was never charged with molesting the older boy.

Norton said he broke a confidentiality agreement in a 1999 settlement with the diocese to come forward. Walton said the agreement was worth $725,000.

Though Norton's mother had notified prosecutors about the alleged abuse of her younger son in 1999, it was only last year that the case picked up steam.

Authorities said Hopkins, who was working at St. Aloysuis parish in Oaklyn in 1995, performed sex acts on the boy, who was then 10, and forced the boy to perform acts on him.

The diocese in February became one of the first in the nation to establish a support group for victims of abuse.

The diocese, which serves nearly 450,000 Catholics in southern New Jersey, also agreed to pay 23 plaintiffs in another civil suit alleging abuse by priests and a church cover-up a total of $880,000.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: Copyright 2002 by NBC 10. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.