Though only county prosecutors in Ohio can call a grand jury, victims advocates say there are things the attorney general could do — actions that officials in several other home rule states have taken to investigate sex abuse cases against Catholic priests.
A year after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus released its list of priests credibly accused of child sexual abuse, some survivors and advocates still are pressing Ohio officials to take action.
The list, one of many released by dioceses across the country, was spurred in part by a state grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania, released in August 2018.
But when asked why Ohio doesn’t investigate the issue, state officials point to a home-rule law stating that county prosecutors must request such an investigation before the attorney general can initiate it.
Home rule isn’t a reason not to investigate the issue on a state level, said Marci Hamilton, founder and CEO of CHILD USA, a Philadelphia-based think tank tracking state efforts on child abuse.
Though only county prosecutors in Ohio can call a grand jury, there are things the attorney general could do that several other home rule states have, Hamilton and other victims’ advocates say.
More than half of them have home-rule laws, too.
Listen to the Columbus Dispatch from the newsroom:
“These other states are doing investigations,” said Hamilton, but in Ohio, “obviously they’re all hiding behind ‘it’s your jurisdiction, not mine.’”
In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear, the former attorney general, tried to get legislators to change state law and give the attorney general more power to investigate such crimes, but the bills are now stalled.
“It’s slower, but it’s another example of someone saying where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Zach Hiner, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
In West Virginia, the attorney general doesn’t have authority to investigate criminal matters, only civil, so in a “creative” approach, Attorney General Patrick Morrissey sued the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese in a consumer protection suit for knowingly employing pedophiles. The premise was that saying the school was safe was false advertising.
Missouri and Illinois officials simply asked dioceses and archdioceses in those states to release files for them to review.
“There’s no reason not to ask the diocese for that cooperation,” Hiner said.
In Missouri, the attorney general’s office found 12 former clergy members it referred for criminal prosecution to county prosecutors who had jurisdiction to take the cases, according to a release from the office.
“They have similar restrictions, but the attorney general wanted to do something,” Hiner said.
When the Pennsylvania report came out, Mike DeWine, who was then Ohio’s attorney general, met with the six county prosecutor’s offices where dioceses or archdioceses are headquartered and offered assistance if they wanted to start an investigation, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for now-Gov. DeWine.
“Ohio’s fairly unique in how much authority it gives to local government,” Tierney said. “You can’t really compare apples to apples.”
The Columbus diocese is headquartered in Franklin County, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is in Hamilton County, the Toledo diocese is in Lucas County, the Cleveland diocese is in Cuyahoga County, the Youngstown diocese is in Mahoning County and the Steubenville diocese is in Jefferson County.
None of the six counties requested an investigation. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office said there are experts available to assist now if that’s requested.
“If somebody wants the attorney general to do an investigation, that requires a law change,” Tierney said. “But I don’t think that’s what people are asking. I think what people are asking is, has this been investigated? It has in (three) counties at least.”
Tierney said Hamilton, Lucas and Cuyahoga counties had grand jury investigations, but it seems all of them took place early this century, right after the Boston Globe released its Spotlight investigation in 2002. The investigation, later the subject of the movie “Spotlight,” revealed widespread sex abuse in the archdiocese in Boston and indicated it was going on across the country.
As for the other three counties, Tierney said local media asked prosecutors what they were going to do or had done, and so did DeWine’s staff in the attorney general’s office.
“We received a variety of answers,” Tierney said. “Prosecutors would say they did do some due diligence at the time.”
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien did not speak to The Dispatch for this story. Instead, his spokeswoman referred to his comments in past Dispatch articles.
In March 2019, O’Brien said he prosecuted a clergy sex abuse case in the late 1990s, but that no other cases were within the statute of limitations, which expires 20 years after the abuse takes place, though there has been support for extending it.
He said that since 2002, the diocese has been forthcoming with information on any issues that have arisen. The Diocese of Columbus says it reports every allegation to law enforcement.
Some prosecutors, including Hamilton County’s, have agreements with the local diocese that Catholic officials will report cases to them.
“We feel confident they do that,” said Julie Wilson, chief assistant prosecutor for the county.
The office is working on a high-profile case involving the Rev. Geoff Drew, accused of raping an altar boy 30 years ago.
The Lucas County prosecutor’s office said it has received reports from the local diocese but none has been verifiable.
Nick Modarelli, chief assistant in the Mahoning County prosecutor’s office, said there haven’t been any cases brought to the office in eight years.
Nothing has been reported or investigated recently at the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office, said spokesman Tyler Sinclair.
The Jefferson County prosecutor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Still, advocates say there are child predators out there who have yet to be uncovered, and even if the cases can’t be prosecuted, there are benefits to letting people know what clergy have done and how the church might have hidden their crimes.
CHILD USA’s Hamilton looks to the Pennsylvania grand jury report as an example. Though only a few priests faced criminal charges, the report revealed allegations that more than 1,000 children were sexually abused by more than 300 priests.
“There were recommendations and there was tremendous truth-telling to the public; it was a huge public service,” she said. “Even if they can’t prosecute, you still have a need for the public to understand how one of of the most powerful institutions in the state put children at risk.”
Mary Graw Leary, law professor at Catholic University of America, agreed, saying a case should be investigated, even if it can’t be prosecuted, if there’s a belief that criminal activity was going on.
Still, Tierney said DeWine is focusing on protecting children overall, not the “very specific issue” of Catholic sex abuse.
“The governor has looked at the issue in a broader sense as opposed to a very small subset,” he said.
Hamilton said it’s about public interest in children’s safety in general, and Ohio laws fall far behind those of many states when it comes to help for child sex-abuse victims.
“Ohio seems to be in a time warp: Where most prosecutors across the country seem to be looking for ways to be champions for victims, Ohio prosecutors seem to be hiding behind whatever they can to not uncover it,” Hamilton said.
Contact: dking@dispatch.com