Applause erupted in a New Jersey courtroom after Clark Fredericks pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing the man he says molested him as a child, Dennis Pegg, a man who was his Boy Scout leader and a family friend. CBS2's Dave Carlin reports.
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Dennis Pegg (1944 – June 12, 2012) was a former New Jersey Boy Scout leader, community figure, and Sussex County sheriff's officer who was killed by a survivor of his long-term childhood sexual abuse.
Case Background and AbusePegg lived in Stillwater, New Jersey, where he maintained a highly regarded public persona as a standalone citizen, sheriff's officer, and leader in organizations like the Kiwanis and the Audubon Society. Privately, he used his positions of authority to systematically groom and abuse young boys from the 1970s onward. One of his primary victims was Clark Fredericks, whom Pegg began sexually abusing and raping from the age of 6 to 12. Pegg enforced Fredericks' silence through extreme intimidation, including torturing and killing animals in front of him. Because of Pegg's status in local law enforcement, victims felt he was entirely untouchable.
The SlayingOn June 12, 2012, after decades of severe psychological trauma, Fredericks experienced a breaking point. Triggered by watching the high-profile Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse trial, seeing Pegg in a local deli with another young boy, and consuming alcohol and cocaine, Fredericks decided to confront him. He went to Pegg's Millbrook Road home and stabbed the 68-year-old Pegg 30 times using a hunting knife that Pegg had originally gifted him during his childhood scouting years. Fredericks then slit Pegg's throat.
