JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune-Democrat [Johnstown PA]
April 9, 2022
By Dave Sutor
Chris Swartz is a tall, barrel-chested police officer. He’s not exactly the kind of guy who, at first appearance, would be envisioned spending countless hours comforting children in their times of most desperate need.
But as a member of the Johnstown Police Department, he has been providing compassion and justice for young victims of sexual and physical abuse for years.
“With me, I took this position as a juvenile detective because I care about kids,” Swartz said during an interview on April 1, just hours after a 14-month-old Johnstown girl died at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, the victim of a homicide. “God forbid something happened, I want to be that child’s last voice. I want to fight for that kid because, honestly, children are our future. That’s one thing that I tell these kids – I’ll do whatever I can to make their lives easier.
“Obviously, me, I’m a bigger guy. It’s tougher for some kids to open up to me. But the biggest thing that I’ve found is just talk to them.”
Swartz draws from his own personal life when looking to develop connections with victims.
“I have four kids of my own, so when you reference a cartoon or something that they like, you kind of see the eyes perk up a little bit,” he said.
That same family helps him deal with the challenges of the job.
“My wife, she’s very supportive of what I do,” Swartz said. “My kids, they’re phenomenal. They know when things have gone bad, and they’ll just sort of let me be for a while. Then they get into being normal kids – mom, dad, this, that and the other. Honestly, I coach gymnastics. That helps me kind of give back a little because I’m helping these kids. I’m teaching these kids new skills.”
‘You can’t unsee’
Swartz conducts what he calls “minimal information” interviews – who, what, when, where. For many children, the conversation is the beginning of a long, emotional journey through their own personal recovery and the legal system that involves police officers, therapists and attorneys.
Those professionals also deal with their own work-related trauma that comes from dealing with some of the worst aspects of humanity.
“Part of the role of the prosecutor is to bear the burden of seeking justice for the family, so that the family and the victim can focus on healing, can focus on getting the help that they need to cope with the terrible things that may have happened to them,” Cambria County District Attorney Gregory Neugebauer said.
“There’s no question that it takes a toll on prosecutors and law enforcement alike. You can’t unsee a lot of the things that you see, and you can’t unhear a lot of the things that you hear. But going into this job, you know that. You do it willingly because somebody has to speak up for these victims, and somebody has to seek justice on behalf of the victims and on behalf of the community for community protection, so that there’s not another victim or a perpetrator.”
Neugebauer said education is a key to reducing child abuse.
“And I think society has done a better job and the community at large has a better understating of what some of the grooming behaviors can look like,” Neugebauer said.
‘Society is changing’
Neugebauer and Swartz, along with many other people who have been involved in helping local victims of child abuse over the years, including attorneys Richard Serbin and Mitchell Garabedian, agree that such accusations are now handled much more effectively than in the past.
Serbin, then a Blair County-based attorney, in 1987 brought a case against the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Bishop James Hogan, St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Altoona and the Rev. Francis Luddy, who was accused of sexually abusing Michael Hutchison. A judge put a gag order in place.
Hutchison, as an adult, went through what Serbin called a “disgusting deposition” that involved sexually explicit questions. Serbin said his life was threatened. The case was not ultimately resolved until 2008.
Serbin has since represented hundreds of victims, including many from the local diocese.
In recent times, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General issued grand jury reports showing widespread, decades-long abuse and coverups within the Altoona-Johnstown diocese and six other Roman Catholic dioceses throughout the commonwealth.
“Doing it all these years, I’ve seen the changes,” Serbin said. “When I filed in 1987, I was one of a handful of attorneys across the country that had ever filed a lawsuit.
“The Hutchinson case was one of the few cases that had gone to a verdict and is still, to my knowledge, the only case in Pennsylvania that resulted in a favorable verdict for a child sex abuse survivor against a bishop, a diocese and a priest to this day, all these years later.”
Serbin added: “I’m glad that things have changed slowly.”
Garabedian described the change as “dramatic.”
Likewise, Garabedian has represented victims in the local area and across the nation, gaining notoriety for bringing attention to abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston, work that was depicted in the movie “Spotlight.”
“Because of the movement concerning the exposure of sexual abuse, individuals will approach me, for instance on the street, who now support me and support victims or survivors when, in the past, they would have great disdain for me, victims or survivors,” Garabedian said. “The attitude of society is changing in that it is now supporting victims or survivors openly and seeing that sexual abuse is evil and forever damaging.”
Garabedian said victims who came forward in the Johnstown region effected change “by making the public aware that they have to watch their children when they’re in the caring custody of a priest, religious brothers or any adults.”
He added: “There isn’t one victim who wouldn’t exchange all the money in the world for not having been sexually abused. It’s a matter of validation. The victims in the Johnstown area wanted validation.”
Debate in Harrisburg
In 2019, Pennsylvania eliminated the criminal statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse, regarding future cases. But for years, advocates have been trying to get a two-year retroactive window created during which victims could make civil claims for past abuse, even if the statute of limitations has already expired.
An attempt to have the issue voted on as a proposed state constitutional amendment fell apart in 2021 when then-Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar failed to properly advertise the referendum.
State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, has declined to bring a bill to the floor that includes a retroactive clause. Her belief is that the window would be unconstitutional.
A retroactive window was recommended in the grand jury report that involved six dioceses.
“Here we have the state of Pennsylvania, which was the catalyst for change in states throughout the country, and the very state that caused these changes, recognizing that child sex abuse survivors do not come forward until much later in life – the average age being between 52 to 54, somewhere around there – and Pennsylvania still has not changed,” Serbin said.
“Why? There are various politicians who are supported by the insurance industry and the Pennsylvania Conference of Catholic Bishops who have opposed that change, and these politicians, of the Republican Party, I might add, including Kim Ward, have in the last two years prevented it to go out of committee and go for a vote.”
Dave Sutor is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at (814) 532-5056. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Sutor.