Fr. Joseph T. Hammond

First named publicly as accused in the 8/14/18 PA Grand Jury Report. In 6/16 a man testified that when he was in high school in 1961, Hammond masturbated in front of him and tried to fondle him in the rectory of St. Leo’s in Ashley. He said other boys saw Hammond masturbating that night, too. The man said, in part, that he drove to the police station and that the officer on duty, who was a St. Leo’s parishioner, told him he didn’t want to hear it and to leave. He said he told his girlfriend, then his mother, who contacted the diocese, and that the diocese told her it would be taken care of. Hammond was kept in ministry and made Monsignor in 1968. He died in 1985. Hammond’s diocesan file had no record of the allegation, and the Ashley police had no record of the report. The GJ was able to corroborate the man’s story via another person who was there that night and from the man’s his wife, who was his girlfriend in 1961. On diocese’s list 8/19/18.