Newton's 'Suspicious Death' At Providence: Ferak Column, Part 2

NEW LENOX, IL — Last week, we learned more disturbing news about Father Richard J. McGrath, the suspected child pornographer, who ran Providence Catholic High School for decades until he was forced out as president four months ago. On Thursday, Jeff Anderson & Associates filed a 22-page lawsuit in Chicago against the Augustinian Order of priests and brothers for maintaining a hazardous public nuisance.

Former Providence student Bob Krankvich, of Crest Hill, filed the lawsuit. "Fr. McGrath took advantage of the admiration, trust, reverence and respect that Plaintiff had for him and the Roman Catholic Church and sexually abused Plaintiff on multiple occasions between approximately 1995 and 1996, when Plaintiff was approximately 13 to 15 years old," his lawsuit states. "Defendants knew or should have known that they had numerous agents who had sexually molested children. Defendants knew or should have known that child molesters have a high rate of recidivism ... On information and belief, Fr. McGrath sexually abused other children before, during and after he sexually abused Plaintiff."

Their lawsuit aims to unlock the deeply guarded secrets within the Augustinian Order surrounding how many priests and religious brothers were protected and shielded from the public, particularly in Illinois where the Augustinians run Providence and St. Rita High School in Chicago. The lawsuit calls on "the Augustinians to come clean and release its list of accused offenders."

BROTHER JOHN

At the time of the April 12 lawsuit, McGrath and the late Brother John Newton were not listed on any public database of accused Augustinians. McGrath was ordained a Roman Catholic priest around 1973. He worked at St. Rita from 1974 through 1985. He took over Providence in 1986. As for Newton, he graduated from St. Rita in 1975. By 1987, he became an Augustinian brother and a teacher at St. Rita. He became St. Rita's head wrestling coach and director of student activities. Then, in 1997, the Augustinians shuffled Newton, 40, to New Lenox for what amounted to a questionable demotion, according to people affiliated with Providence.

McGrath made him a theology teacher. He also let Newton coach junior varsity wrestling. Then Newton died in a mysterious fire on March 23, 2001 at the Providence rectory. In light of my reporting on McGrath's sudden departure from Providence, a number of people asked me to investigate the circumstances of Brother Newton's death 17 years ago. His death drew scant news media coverage at the time.

Afterward, stories of weird behavior began coming to light around Providence, where Newton was known by the students as "Bro-Jo."

"Brother John forced us to take showers naked after wrestling under threat of detention and always peeked in and sometimes watched," one Providence graduate recently advised Patch. "Hope you get more leads."

Back in January, a former staff member told me of incidents off-campus in which Newton allegedly undressed in front of a limited number of Providence wrestlers and encouraged them to disrobe and get into a hot tub naked with him.

RELATED: Father McGrath, Brother John, A Mysterious Fire

During his fourth school year at Providence, Newton was found dead on Friday, March 23, 2001. He was only 43.

In recent weeks, I obtained about 40 pages of documents as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request to the New Lenox Police Department seeking access to the Newton investigation. I did not find any signs pointing to somebody at the friary suffocating Newton with a pillow, as some people wondered. On the other hand, the investigation into Newton's death, notably the interview process, was not thorough, based on the reports I was given.

INTERVIEWS LIMITED

Aside from interviewing Father Gerald Nicholas, who smelled smoke in the friary's hallway and found Newton's body, the police and state fire marshal's reports were absent of in-depth interviews with the three other Augustinians at the Providence Friary during what was classified as a "suspicious death."

Besides Newton and Nicholas, the other men at the friary were:

• Father McGrath, president of Providence
• Father Roland F. Follmann
• Brother John Patrick Currier

Follmann and Currier were briefly mentioned in one of the police reports indicating, "they advised they had not heard nor seen anything unusual overnight." Also, Nicholas told police "the last contact they had with the deceased was at dinner the prior night, approximately at 5:30 p.m. He advised they then retired to their individual living quarters and no one spoke with him after that."

Shortly before 6 a.m., the smell of smoke was evident in the friary.

"Nicholas yelled for help and Father McGrath ran into the room with him," police reports show. Nicholas told police "there was intense smoke and heat in the room but they saw that the fire was out. He said that he and Father McGrath gave the deceased his last rites and then he went into the exterior hallway to call 911. Nicholas said that after he tried several times to call and was unsuccessful he ran to the basement to use the phone down there. In the meantime, Father McGrath used his cellular phone to dial 911 to summon police and fire individuals."

ODD DISCOVERIES

New Lenox Police arrived at 5:54 a.m. The fire department at 5:59 a.m. By then, the fire was out. "The fire was hot enough to burn but not flash, per the fire department, meaning it had run out of oxygen and smoldered," a police report stated.

Newton had a den, bedroom and little bathroom. His body was in the den, not far from the hallway door.

However, in Newton's bathroom, one investigator noticed the water was running, "which appears to have been on for some time due to the soot line in the sink," a report stated.

The fire started in Newton's bedroom. "There was a lamp in the room that was knocked over and several cups on the floor that appeared to have been knocked off an adjacent shelf," reports state.

At the foot of the victim's charred bed was a small refrigerator. "The door to this was open and had been open during the fire due to soot that was inside. On top were medications belonging to the victim one of these being ... a heart medication, and inside and on top of the refrigerator were insulin."

None of the police and fire reports mention Newton yelling or screaming for help; yet the reports make it clear he was alive and alert when his bed caught on fire.

"In the den area ... John was lying on his back with the head facing to the west," evidence technician Lou Bysiek stated. "He was dressed in what appears to be plaid pajamas. His eyes were slightly open along with his mouth. The hair was singed and he was covered in soot. There were no signs of foul play at the scene."

Milton Batson, state fire marshal investigator, noted "the door to the room from the hallway showed it to be in the open position during some of the fire. This was evident by the amount of smoke stain on the door frame as well as the ceiling of the hallway. A smoke detector in the hallway, a few feet from the door to the apartment, did not activate. When it was checked, it was found to be a battery type and the contacts were not attached properly."

When Newton's body was moved, fire investigators noticed "the night wear was not burned." They also described his hands as being "in the boxer position."

"There was some type of plastic stuck to the bottom of the sock that was on the right foot. There did not appear to (be) anything disturbed in the room," Batson wrote. "No conclusion as to the cause of this fire will be made until the Will County Coroner's Office finishes their part of the investigation."

INQUEST HELD

On May 3, 2001, Will County Coroner Patrick K. O'Neil conducted an inquest.

"This is neither a civil nor a criminal hearing, but merely an inquest to determine the manner of death of the late John E. Newton," O'Neil told the jury.

New Lenox Detective Hillary Buck was the primary witness. She got to the scene about forty minutes after the body was discovered.

"The window in the bedroom broke outwards, indicating that the fire was on the inside from the heat ... In the bathroom, I noticed that the faucet was turned on in the bathroom," she testified.

O'Neil asked if she believed Newton "perhaps was trying to extinguish the fire."

"That's right," she agreed.

Ultimately, O'Neil's questions turned to Newton's smoking materials.

"I observed a one-hitter box, commonly used to hold cannabis," the detective testified. "And we also discovered several cigarette butts that had come from an ashtray that fell over and a lighter."

O'Neil asked for Buck's theory of what happened.

"Most likely the decedent was smoking and fell asleep with a lit smoking material and woke up to find that the room was engulfed in flames or that it was certainly filled with smoke. He probably went to put the fire out. His first instinct was to turn on the faucet to put it out. He realized that it was out of control, and he wouldn't be able to do so. So he tried to make it out and was overcome with smoke inhalation."

O'Neil asked her to summarize the major findings from Newton's toxicology report.

"Carbon monoxide and cannabis," she testified.

"What's cannabis?" one of the jurors asked.

"Marijuana," O'Neil answered.

Because Newton was a diabetic, the coroner's office tried to determine whether his diabetes was a factor.

"But the glucose fluid level was within the normal range," O'Neil announced.

"Brother Newton tested positive for marijuana and he also tested positive for carbon monoxide at 59 percent, which is going to be related to the cause of death," O'Neil told the jury. "Carbon monoxide in the blood of a fire victim would indicate that they were alive at the time of the fire."

The late Will County forensic pathologist Dr. Bryan Mitchell examined the body. Mitchell also handled the autopsy for Kathleen Savio, 40, in 2004, ruling her Bolingbrook bathtub death to be an accident.

"He states that there was no trauma, tumor, infection or congenial anomalies located on the decedent," O'Neil informed the jury. "In his examination of Brother John Newton, it's his opinion that the immediate cause of death on the death certificate be listed as carbon monoxide due to inhalation of smoke and soot due to an apartment fire."

On May 3, 2001, records show, the Will County Coroner's jury ruled "this to be an accidental death."

TAKEAWAYS

Although police reports labeled the Providence Friary case "as a suspicious death" the interview process was not long and thorough. Besides the victim, four other Augustinians lived at the friary, but only Father Nicholas was interviewed extensively, reports reflect. Reports don't reflect that McGrath, Follmann and Currier were interviewed about their whereabouts or their interactions with Newton prior to the overnight tragedy.

Although McGrath found Newton's body at the same time as Nicholas, there is no indication McGrath underwent an extensive interview.

There is also no indication Newton's room was dusted for fingerprints. The death investigation would have changed dramatically if the fingerprints of somebody other than Newton were found on his bathroom sink, the open door to his small refrigerator or the lamp that was knocked over.

It also does not appear anyone got to the bottom of why the friary had a smoke detector right outside Newton's room but the working battery was disconnected.

Who disconnected the battery and why?

It also does not appear anyone was questioned about Brother Newton's penchant for smoking pot in the friary. Perhaps that was why the smoke detector was disconnected right outside Newton's door.

Because so few questions were asked by the investigating authorities at the time of Newton's mysterious death, I can see why O'Neil's inquest ruled the death to be an accident. Maybe it really was. At this point, I'll give O'Neil the benefit of the doubt that he got it right.

But if this was an accident, it was accidental death that was preventable.

Newton's death at 43 inside the Providence Friary is a sad reminder to all of us about the dangers of having an inoperable smoke detector. Had the smoke detector been working properly, Bro-Jo might still be alive to this day.

John Ferak is Patch Editor of Joliet, New Lenox, Channahon-Minooka as well as Bolingbrook and Shorewood. He also writes true-crime books, having four books published.

Main image of Brother John Newton via Providence Yearbook supplied to Patch