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Father Cassian Newton

Aliases:
Dr. Milton
Virgil Miller Newton

Sued

Pokrov has found several web sites and articles about alleged abuses and various lawsuits against Fr. Cassian Newton and organizations he was involved in (Straight, Inc. and KIDS in Bergen, New Jersey). Now an Antiochian priest and director of Church at the Sea Foundation, a pan-Orthodox retreat center, Fr. Cassian is based in the St. Petersburg, Florida area and in 1999 applied to the State of Florida to give substance-abuse counseling to youth in Pinellas County.

Lawsuits and public allegations of abuse by Fr. Cassian span from the early 1980's to 2003. For instance, in 2000, $2million dollars were paid on behalf of Newton in a malpractice settlement (The Bergen Record, April 9, 2000). Allegations include beatings, torture, emotional trauma, kidnapping and false imprisonment. In July, 2003 $6.5 million was awarded to an female victim of Newton's. According to the New Jersey Law Journal (July 21, 2003), the victim ”spent nearly 13 years -- from age 13 to 26 -- as a virtual prisoner of drug rehabilitation guru V. Miller Newton” According to the same article, the total pay-out to Newton's victims, so far, is $12.34 million.