Minister Who Let Molester Work With Teens Resigns

A Hermosa Beach minister resigned his post Tuesday, accepting the blame for allowing a Greek Orthodox priest, who last week was charged with sexual assault, to counsel a church youth group for the last five months.

Father Richard E. Wescott announced in a letter to the church’s rector his intention to leave St. Cross Episcopal Church, where he had served as second in command for 2 1/2 years.

Wescott said in an interview Tuesday that he had been “foolish” when he let Stanley Adamakis, the Orthodox priest, counsel teen-agers in the St. Cross youth group.

Felony sexual battery charges were filed against Adamakis, who had been previously convicted of child molestation, after an 18-year-old told police that he was molested by Adamakis on Dec. 17. The teen-ager and two other young men were house-sitting at a home on the Strand in Hermosa Beach, and Adamakis was acting as a chaperon when the incident occurred, police said.

Adamakis, 47, has declined to comment.

“I think, through my foolishness of not being able to discern what Stanley (Adamakis) was all about, that I have had a part in hurting a number of people,” Wescott said. “I feel badly about that. That is the understatement of the day.”

Wescott, the supervisor of the church youth group, said he met Adamakis in the early 1980s. The two worked as counselors at a psychiatric and drug rehabilitation center in the San Fernando Valley and kept in touch when they moved on to other jobs, Wescott said.

Wescott said that when he moved into a church-owned home next to St. Cross in late 1988, he let Adamakis rent the home’s garage apartment. Adamakis was out of work and could not afford his apartment in the San Fernando Valley, Wescott said.

“I was trying to help somebody, a fellow priest, who was down on his luck,” Wescott said.

Wescott characterized Adamakis as sometimes disagreeable and said he had occasionally challenged Wescott’s authority as supervisor of the youth group. But Wescott said he wanted to avoid a confrontation with Adamakis and allowed him to continue counseling the teen-agers because they liked him.

In retrospect, Wescott said, he wishes he had asked Adamakis to move on.

Adamakis pleaded guilty in 1986 to molesting two brothers, ages 12 and 13, and served 78 days in Los Angeles County Jail.

Earlier this week, a Greek Orthodox bishop said that an action to unfrock Adamakis is pending because of repeated, although never substantiated, accusations of sexual misbehavior. Adamakis was ordained as a Greek Orthodox priest at least 15 years ago, the bishop said.

Despite their long acquaintance, Wescott said he had not known about either situation.

“If I had known anything about any of that, I wouldn’t have brought him by here,” Wescott said. “I knew nothing of that.”

Wescott will meet Friday with Bishop Frederick H. Borsch of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles to discuss his next assignment. The 56-year-old priest does not face disciplinary action, a diocesan spokesman said.