COVINGTON (KY)
Cincinnati Enquirer
By Cindy Schroeder
Enquirer staff writer
Sex abuse allegations involving priests from the Covington Diocese have surfaced several times in the past decade.
In one of the more notorious cases, Earl Bierman, a former priest and teacher at Covington Latin School in the 1960s and 70s, was removed from the priesthood and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In 1993, Bierman pleaded guilty to 25 molestation charges involving six boys in Campbell, Kenton and Mason counties. Church records later released for a civil trial revealed at least 73 reports of abuse from teenaged victims.
"There were six who actually pressed charges, but there were many more victims," former Kentucky State Police Detective Bob Scott told The Enquirer in 2002. Scott handled the investigation of Bierman. "They didn't want to pursue it legally, but they were troubled many years later by what happened to them."
This week, Bierman was again in the news with the announcement that he has cancer. The Kentucky Department of Corrections has recommended the former priest be granted an early medical parole because he has less than a year to live. The parole board will decide whether to grant the defrocked priest a final act of mercy on July 7.
Posted by kshaw at June 4, 2005 04:39 AM