PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror
JUN 15, 2017
KAY STEPHENS
Staff Writer
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG — 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.
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