James Williams, a former president of Mineola’s Chaminade High School who was suspended from serving as a priest in 2016 after reports of alleged student sexual abuse was found to be “credible,” died in December at the age of 54.
His Dec. 12 death was not publically announced by his former religious order, the Marianists, who manage the all-boys school, but was confirmed in February to Newsday. His cause of death was not disclosed by the school.
Williams was a teacher and administrator at the Catholic Marianist school in Mineola from 1991 until 2012. He began his tenure as a math teacher until being appointed the school’s president in 1999.
He stepped down from his presidential role in August 2011 but remained a teacher and chaplain for another year.
In tandem with leaving his role as the school’s president in 2011, that same year he was also alleged to have abused a former student who the school said was a minor at the time. Williams denied the allegations.
An investigation into the abuse began in February 2015, and after 15 months determined the allegations to be credible. His suspension in 2016 was a result of these findings.
The Marianists, who manage the school, went to the Nassau County District Attorney’s office about the abuse allegations. The DA conducted its own investigation.
The victim, who the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said was an adult at the time of abuse despite the Catholic order claiming they were a minor, did not press charges against Williams. The two-year statute of limitations had already expired by the time of the investigation.
The allegation was also forwarded to the Vatican, which also determined the abuse allegations against Williams to be credible , according to Newsday. He was then defrocked, meaning he was removed as a member of the clergy and could no longer serve as a priest permanently.
Williams was allegedly living in Rome during the investigation, with a September 2015 newsletter from the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Brookville stating he was going to Rome to pursue a doctorate at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.
According to Newsday, Williams worked for a Manhattan-based residential cleaning service for three years as an operations manager. He was laid off from the role in October.
