Friars Attempt to Get Charges Tossed

By Kay Stephens
Altoona Mirror
June 15, 2017

http://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2017/06/friars-attempt-to-get-charges-tossed/

Mirror photo by Kay Stephens / Rosalind Merritts of Hollidays­burg and John Nesbella of Lilly display protest signs outside the Blair County Courthouse after Wednes­day’s court hearing on criminal charges filed against three Franciscan friars.

Attorneys for three Franciscan friars tried Wednesday to convince a Blair County judge that prosecutors have no case to support the criminal charges filed against their clients.

“There’s zero evidence of a conspiracy. There’s zero evidence of a course of conduct,” attorney Charles Porter told Judge Jolene G. Kopriva on behalf of Anthony “Giles” Schinelli.

Schinelli, Robert J. D’Aversa and Anthony M. Criscitelli previously served as ministers provincial for the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, Hollidaysburg, starting in 1992. In those roles, they supervised Brother Stephen Baker whose work assignments allegedly put him in a position to sexually abuse male youths.

In criminal charges filed in March 2016, three years after Baker fatally stabbed himself at his monastery residence in Hollidaysburg, the state attorney general accused Baker’s three supervisors of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children.

The criminal charges indicate that the friars knew of or suspected Baker’s history of abusing youths and never reported it to police.

The conspiracy charge, Senior Deputy Attorney General Daniel J. Dye told Kopriva, reflects their actions or lack of actions, based on a goal of trying to protect the order and avoid disclosure of an embarrassing secret.

“The entirety of that (preliminary hearing) transcript shows a case has been met,” he said.

Dye identified Schinelli was the one who created “an endangering situation” when he allowed Baker to take an assignment in 1992 at Bishop McCort High School, Johnstown, even though Schinelli was aware of a prior out-of-state allegation about Baker’s behavior. Besides teaching religion, Baker was the school’s athletic trainer, a role that former McCort students say exposed them to his abuse.

Porter tried to convince the judge that the charges don’t hold up because there’s a difference between knowledge of an allegation and knowledge of what’s true. Schinelli reportedly asked for additional information on the allegation and learned that none was available.

Dye said the criminal charges also apply to D’Aversa and Criscitelli because they allowed the endangerment to continue when they succeeded Schinelli as ministers provincial and assigned Baker to roles that exposed him to children.

Defense attorneys Robert Ridge, representing D’Aversa, and James Kraus, representing Criscitelli, disagreed. Ridge pointed out that D’Aversa removed Baker from McCort and assigned him to a job as vocations director. After Ridge referred to the timing of Baker’s job change as coincidental, Kopriva asked Dye about that description.

Dye said the timing was linked to a credible allegation about Baker’s behavior. Dye also said D’Aversa never disclosed the reason to McCort, which provided Baker with “a hero’s send-off.”

Kraus tried to convince the judge that there’s no basis for the charges against his client, Criscitelli, who assigned Baker to clerical and landscaping duties and to work as a clerk in a shop the friars set up at the Logan Valley Mall.

“There’s no evidence that children worked there or that anything untoward happened,” Kraus said.

Kopriva told the defense attorney that she recalled Baker’s hours being scheduled for times when children would be in school. And that kind of schedule, Dye said, doesn’t allow him to avoid a child endangerment charge because children can be in a shopping mall at any time.

Kraus also asked the judge to consider a change of location or the use of an out-of-county jury if the case goes to trial. The case has generated substantial news coverage and online comments, he said.

That kind of request is typically considered, Kopriva advised the attorney, only if a jury cannot be seated.

Kraus acknowledged that there has been a “cooling off” period for the news story.

“(But) every time this case comes to court, it heats up 100 degrees,” Kraus said.

Kopriva told the attorneys she would issue a ruling “as soon as possible” and pledged “to read everything.”

The friars, two of whom live in Florida and one in Minnesota, were in court for the hearing.

Also in court were the parents of a former Bishop McCort student Corey Leech, who testified at the friars’ preliminary hearing and described how Baker abused him and others. Leech died in May at the age of 31. His obituary indicated that he struggled with substance abuse.

Representatives and supporters for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests were also at the hearing and outside the courthouse with signs.

“There are hundreds of people who are still affected by this kind of abuse,” SNAP leader John Nesbella of Lilly said. “For us, it’s not over, and we want them to know that. We want to see that justice is done.”