NEW YORK
Syracuse.com
By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com
on December 11, 2014
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A 30-year-old secret began to unravel two months ago when the Vatican defrocked Monsignor Charles Eckermann over child-molesting allegations.
Two retired Syracuse police officers remembered Eckermann’s name.
John Falge remembered how, at a hastily called meeting in 1984, Syracuse’s police chief ordered him to deliver a warning about Eckermann to the bishop of the Syracuse Diocese.
Police had seen Eckermann soliciting male prostitutes repeatedly in downtown Syracuse, according Falge and another retired officer, Thomas Murphy.
In May 1984, then-Bishop Frank Harrison announced that Eckermann would be the principal of Bishop Ludden High School. Police Chief Thomas Sardino wanted to put a stop to it immediately. He called Falge and Murphy into to his office that same day and gave Falge an order, the two officers say.
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