PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
February 6, 2019
By Peter Smith
Criminal charges against the Rev. Hugh Lang, an 88-year-old retired Catholic priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, were held for trial at a contentious preliminary hearing Wednesday in Munhall that featured graphic testimony by a 29-year-old man who alleged an episode of sexual abuse in 2001, when he was 11 years old.
The accuser, who now lives overseas, appeared in a dark suit, and answered questions from both prosecutor Thomas Kelly and defense attorney J. Kerrington Lewis readily and without emotion. The young man said that he was punished for a comment he made while in training to be an altar server at St. Therese Parish in Munhall in 2001. He described in detail how, he said, Rev. Lang brought him to a basement room, had him undress, and sexually assaulted him.
During the hearing, Mr. Lewis became frustrated with District Judge Thomas Torkowsky’s rulings on objections and even on the arrangement of the courtroom. Mr. Lewis asked the judge to recuse himself from the case. The judge refused.
Mr. Lewis then said that when the case proceeds to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, he will ask that the assigned judge order a new preliminary hearing.
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