PENNSYLVANIA
Reuters
HARRISBURG, PA. | BY DAVID DEKOK
A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday ordered three Franciscan friars to stand trial on charges they endangered boys by assigning a fourth cleric they knew to be a sexual predator to work at a Catholic high school in the 1990s.
Magisterial District Judge Paula Aigner ordered Fathers Giles Schinelli, 73; Robert D’Aversa, 69, and Anthony Criscitelli, 61, to stand trial in Blair County Court of Common Pleas in Hollidaysburg, Pa., on felony charges of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy. No date for the trial was set.
“We’re obviously pleased at the court’s ruling and are ready to take the case to trial,” Deputy Attorney General Daniel Dye, the prosecutor, said in a phone interview.
Lawyers for the three priests could not be reached for comment.
The three are accused of enabling Brother Stephen Baker, a member of their order, to sexually assault numerous boys at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. According to testimony, they assigned him to jobs where he would have contact with boys despite knowing he was an active pedophile. Baker committed suicide in 2013.
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