Lawyers Say Pa. Abuse Cases Unaffected by Suicide

By Ron Todt
Houston Chronicle
January 27, 2013

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Lawyers-say-Pa-abuse-cases-unaffected-by-suicide-4227279.php

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The civil case alleging that a Franciscan friar sexually abused students at a western Pennsylvania high school will go on despite the friar's suicide over the weekend, attorneys representing some of the accusers said Sunday.

Brother Stephen Baker, 62, was found dead of a self-inflicted knife wound at the St. Bernardine Monastery in Hollidaysburg on Saturday, according to Blair Township police. He had been named in recent legal settlements involving sexual abuse allegations at a Catholic high school in northeast Ohio three decades ago, and the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese said it had received allegations of abuse at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown in the 1990s.

When Baker was the school's athletic trainer, 20 former students allege that he assaulted or molested students under the guise of providing therapeutic treatment or medical care for treatment of sports injuries, said Attorney Michael Parrish of Johnstown, who represents the accusers.

"Many of them did not realize until the stories began to break that what he was in fact doing to them was an assault or molestation, not actual therapeutic care," Parrish said of his clients, who ranged in age from 14 to 18 at the time. "He would treat these individuals for a hamstring injury and use that as an opportunity to physically grope them and do other things that constitutes a sexual assault under Pennsylvania law."

Attorney Richard Serbin said he represents about a dozen former students who told him they were typically instructed to strip and enter the whirlpool, and Baker would then give full body massages under the guise of stretching them, fondling them during that process.

"You could have any type of an injury, whether it was to the knee or the hand, and it would culminate in a full-body massage," he said.

Parrish said he had contacted his clients about Baker's death, and many were shocked to hear about the suicide, while some were conflicted. Most needed time to digest the news, he said.

"This case from its inception has been a tragedy, and this is just another part of that tragedy," he said. "I think the bulk of the individuals that we represent are angry about what happened to them, they're hurt about what happened to them, they're suffering for sure and this compounds that suffering."

Serbin said he had decided to give his clients a few days to reflect on the development before contacting them, but he said he wouldn't be surprised if they want to discuss it and have "a lot of emotional reaction."

"Each individual has to reflect upon it and will deal in their own way with what happened," he said.

Parrish said Baker's death appeared to end the possibility of criminal charges, but he and Serbin said their civil cases would proceed. Parrish said he has only been investigating for 10 days and it was too early to talk about potential defendants.

"Certainly Brother Baker was potential defendant, and anybody that had supervisory responsibility over Brother Baker and anyone who knew of Brother Baker's tendencies and put him in a position where he was able to do this," he said.

He later said that depending on what his investigation uncovers, potential defendants could include the school, the diocese and the Franciscan order. Serbin said there were also questions about the actions of the diocese in Youngstown given the allegations of earlier abuse at the Ohio school.

"What did they know and what information did they provide to his order as well as the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown that allowed him to have physical access to children?" he asked.

Baker taught and coached at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio, from 1986 to the early 1990s and was at Bishop McCort from 1992 to 2000.

Parrish said he has been told that about 50 possible plaintiffs have contacted attorneys, and he expected that number to grow.

"There are more phone calls every day," he said.

Bishop McCort hired an attorney to investigate after the allegations surfaced, and attorney Susan Williams said three former students had talked to her in detail about the alleged abuse.

Bishop Mark Bartchak of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese said in a statement Saturday he was saddened by the news of Baker's death but did not comment further, citing pending legal action. A message left for the Rev. Patrick Quinn, the head of Baker's order, the Third Order Regular Franciscans, was not returned.