Prosecutor drops probe of chaplain

The Union County Prosecutor’s Office has concluded that a woman’s sexual abuse allegations against a former Roman Catholic chaplain at Rider University were not credible.

In a letter to the Rev. Bruno Ugliano’s attorney, the office said the investigation was closed.

David Hancock, supervisor of investigations, said in published reports that the office was still reviewing claims by the same woman that two other priests, the Rev. Edward Eilert and the Rev. Joseph Rice, abused her.

Hancock declined to say what led prosecutors to disbelieve allegations against Ugliano.

The priest’s accuser, now 38, lives in North Carolina. She says she was molested by the three priests while working as a teen leader in the county’s Catholic Youth Organization in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The Diocese of Trenton removed Ugliano as chaplain after the woman’ s accusations surfaced this summer. The priest’s attorney, Michael Critchley, said Ugliano hopes to return to the university.

Prosecutor drops probe of chaplain
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
August 25, 2002