OHIO
Vindicator

Mon, March 7, 2016
Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The leader of a national support group for victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy is calling on county prosecutors in Mahoning and Trumbull counties to urge Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to launch an aggressive investigation into sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown.

At a press conference Sunday outside the headquarters of the diocese, Robert Hoatson, president of the New Jersey-based Road to Recovery support group, said, “We want the same type of investigation as was done in Altoona [Pa.].”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane last week released findings of her office’s investigation of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. It revealed that former bishops either covered up or didn’t do enough to respond to hundreds of allegations of abuse committed by more than 50 priests from 1966 to 2011.

“We want state officials to raid that…