PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
BY BRAD BUMSTED | Friday, March 4, 2016
Attorney General Kathleen Kane was told about sexual abuse allegedly committed by a Johnstown-area priest shortly after she took office in January 2013 – about 14 months before her office began a grand jury investigation of abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, a top aide confirmed Friday.
But the case was a dead end because “one victim didn’t cooperate and the statute of limitations already expired,” said Executive Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Cherba. “It was one case. It didn’t lead us any place.”
The case Kane knew about in 2013 concerned George Koharchik, who was later called a “child predator” in the grand jury report released Tuesday. He would grope children in the car after playing Bill Cosby tapes in which the word “penis” was discussed to de-sensitize boys to sexual language, his victims alleged. He admitted to sleeping, showering, wrestling and having kids sit on his lap, the report said.
He denied “predatory” activity, but admitted obtaining sexual gratification from some touching of victims’ “intimate parts,” the grand jury said. He’s listed as suspended from active ministry.
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