Diocese of Trenton Priest Charged for Allegedly Engaging in Sexual Conduct with Teenager
A priest from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton was arrested and charged for engaging in sexual conduct with a teenage boy from Trenton, Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini, Jr. announced today.
The Rev. Romannilo Apura, 67, was taken into custody by detectives with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit at his residence at St. Martha Parish in Point Pleasant shortly after 11 a.m. today.
Apura allegedly fondled the private parts of a teenage male victim in a home in Trenton in the late spring of this year. A second incident occurred in June when Apura attempted to remove the same victim’s pants.
The priest is charged with one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, one count of third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact, and one count of fourth-degree attempt to commit criminal sexual contact. He is being held at the Mercer County Correction Center in lieu of $100,000 cash or bond bail. As conditions of bail, Mercer County Superior Court Judge Pedro J. Jimenez Jr. ordered that Apura surrender his passport and have no contact with the victim or any other children.
The Diocese of Trenton reported the allegations to the prosecutor’s office earlier this week. Anyone with information on the case should contact the prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit at (609) 989-6568. There is no scheduled court date at this time.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
This brave young victim is to be commended for coming forward about being sexually abused. This is not an easy thing to do especially at such a young age. This priest has been assigned to many different parishes, and it is extremely rare that a child predator has only one victim. Some have many. Child predators need to be kept far away from kids forever. So let’s hope that anyone who may have knowledge or may have been harmed by Fr Romannilo Apura, will find the courage to speak up and contact law enforcement, no matter how long ago it happened.
Silence is not an option anymore, it only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others.
Judy Jones, SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
Judy, thanks for the comment. Could you post a link to the SNAP for any people reading this who may have been abused and want to reach out to the SNAP network for support?
Believe this is it: https://www.snapnetwork.org/
I’m not surprised!
The Trenton Diocese actually stands tall with pride by maintaining the name of Lawrence Donovan on the High School in Toms River!
When asked to remove the name with no fanfare, just for the well being of Donavan’s victim, the Diocese responded with a curt “No”, with no explanation.
I asked Joseph Bianchi why they would keep the name of someone they believed was a pedophile, and he had no answer.
It appears they just like to sweep anything like this under the rug, as much as they can.