YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Vindicator
Tue, February 26, 2013
The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown says letters, interviews have uncovered no new allegations involving Brother Stephen Baker.
By Ed Runyan
runyan@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown has written to 1,800 former Warren John F. Kennedy High School students, interviewed five to six current faculty members who worked with Brother Stephen Baker, and soon will talk to all other faculty and staff members from that time to ask what they know about the Franciscan friar.
None of the former students, however, has responded to the letter to indicate any knowledge of sexual misconduct by Baker other than the 11 who were part of a legal settlement last fall. None of the faculty members has indicated a prior awareness that Baker sexually assaulted students, a diocesan spokesman said Monday.
Furthermore, no one has come forward with any credible allegations against any other faculty member, staff member or coach at the school, said Brian Corbin, a member of the administrative board of the diocese.
Corbin called The Vindicator with those and other points, in response to statements made at a news conference Sunday in front of Warren JFK. That’s when Robert Hoatson, a former priest and an advocate for victims of sexual abuse by clergy, said at least 50 more men have come forward to allege sexual abuse by Brother Baker. Many of them have ties to Kennedy High School or the former St. Mary’s Middle School in Warren, Hoatson said.
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