NEW YORK
WKBW
Charlie Specht
Apr 26, 2018
David Husted first encountered Father James Spielman in the principal’s office of Archbishop Walsh High School in Olean in 1979.
The skinny freshman was in trouble when the young, charismatic priest with the dark mustache walked in.
“He came in the room and he said, ‘Hi, what’s your name? What’s going on?’” Husted recalled. “I told him and he started to befriend me. He asked me to come talk to him after school, and you know, I did. He was a priest, he’s a teacher. I thought he was [there] to help me.”
But Father James Spielman wasn’t there to help Husted. He was there to groom him for years of sexual abuse — and Husted says, a lifetime of pain.
“He was thought of as a God,” Husted said. “He was thought of as do no wrong, such a wonderful person. He was so good at what he did, in grooming.”
The grooming of Husted, now in his 50s and living in Texas, started in his Olean home, where the charismatic priest was a regular dinner guest. It continued, Husted said, at a cabin in Scio he nicknamed “The Hill,” and also on a mission trip to Hawaii — a trip that would prove fateful to all involved.
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