Update: St. Thomas Fifth Avenue night custodian appears to be a convicted felon

As part of our ongoing investigation into misconduct and governance issues at St. Thomas Episcopal Fifth Avenue, Anglican Watch has identified another apparent felon on the church staff. That staff member is night custodian Anjolin Acevedo.

Public records suggest Acevedo has faced multiple criminal charges over the years, including a Nov 17, 2011, conviction in New Jersey for aggravated assault. Those charges resulted in six months’ imprisonment and a three-year term of probation. Still worse, Acevedo’s apparent conviction the following year on identical charges resulted in additional time in prison for violating the terms and conditions of his parole.

On October 19, 2022, Acevedo appears to have faced criminal charges in the Elizabeth, New Jersey municipal court (case W20221962) for simple assault, harassment, and engaging in harassing communications. Charges of child neglect and endangerment apparently were dropped (case 22003202).

So, again, we are curious:

• Does anyone, perhaps the COO, the Rev. Matthew Moretz, or the safeguarding team, ever run background checks on staff?
• How does putting a convicted felon with a history of felony violence in charge of a historic landmark building like St. Thomas’ Fifth Avenue make sense?
• Does anyone besides us think that having Acevedo around female staff or vulnerable adult parishioners sounds like a really bad idea? Especially in light of his apparent difficulty in resolving conflict in healthy ways? Or the criminal harassment charges?
• How do parents of kids at the choir school feel about having multiple felons around their children, especially when some of the crimes involve children?
• Given the blue-chip nature of the St. Thomas’ vestry, does anyone in the organization understand the phrase “risk management”?
• Why is St. Thomas’ paying Blue Perimeter for security services when there are convicted felons on the church payroll? And on Blue Perimeter’s payroll? Indeed, why worry about perimeter security when you have criminals on staff?

TLD: We’re really puzzled.

St. Thomas’ retaliates against someone who complains about sexual assault by clergy by publishing false and defamatory claims about the victim. Still, it’s okay to hire people with felony convictions for selling heroin to kids and for multiple instances of assault and battery? Or harassment?

How does that work?