Joey Piscitelli

Joey Piscitelli is a child abuse victims advocate a writer, and a public activist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 29th,1955. His full name is Joseph Anthony Piscitelli. Piscitelli is also a practicing (non-Satanist) Pagan Magickian and Witch, and was a victim of clergy sex abuse at Salesian High School, in Richmond, California. He is the only clergy sex abuse victim to have ever gone to a court jury trial in Contra Costa County, California.
Piscitelli is also the only known Witch to have ever won a case against the Catholic Church in a jury trial, and he also won against the Catholic Church Priest/defendant representatives in court appeals, including the California High Appellate court in 2008.
Piscitelli wrote an autobiography called “A Witch Wins Justice” (2012).
At the time his lawsuit was filed against the Catholic Church and Fr. Stephen Whelan in July 2003, the accused sexual molester priest was Associate Pastor at St. Peter and Pauls Church, under the employ of the Diocese of San Francisco, led by Bishop William Levada. Bishop Levada was later promoted in 2005 to Cardinal, and was named the “Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith”,. This is the former “Office of the Inquisition”. The accused Priest was left in ministry by the Diocese of San Francisco for several years during the litigation, right up to the day of the trial verdict Piscitelli won against the cleric.
He has appeared on several radio talk shows, and TV shows, including The Oprah Winfrey Show for male survivors in Chicago. He has been interviewed and quoted in numerous newspapers and magazines, and has appeared in several documentaries on clergy abuse as well. Piscitelli has been a volunteer leader and coordinator for “SNAP- The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests” for over 10 years in Northern California.
Judgement
In his lawsuit, Joey Piscitelli named Whelan and the Salesian Society as co-defendants. In July 2006, a jury awarded him $600,000, a ruling which was upheld on appeal.
Public Activism
In 2012, Piscitelli sent a letter to the City of Oakland, California to demand the City remove a Ten Commandments monument that was displayed on Oakland public property located at the Oakland Zoo. The City and Zoo officials responded on July 25th, 2012, by removing the monument before a scheduled massive protest was to take place at the Zoo by several activists groups from the San Francisco Bay Area, including the East Bay Atheists.

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