OHIO
Youngstown Vindicator
By Ed Runyan
runyan@vindy.com
NEWTON FALLS
Eleven men settled out of court with Warren John F. Kennedy High School for “upper five figures” each as a result of sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of a man who taught, coached baseball and served as athletic trainer at the school, two of the victims and their attorney said Wednesday.
Franciscan Brother Stephen P. Baker, now living in a monastery near Altoona, Pa., fondled teenagers age 14 to 18 from 1986 to 1990 in the school training room, elsewhere in the school and on trips outside of Warren, two of the victims said.
Brother Baker worked at the school from 1986 to 1991 but was never a member of the clergy, the Diocese of Youngstown said in a written statement. He is a member of the Franciscan Third Order Regular.
Two of the victims, now in their early 40s, said at a news conference at the Holiday Inn in Newton Falls that fondling occurred most frequently during massages in a small, closed training room at the school containing a whirlpool and massage table. Brother Baker would find excuses to massage athletes and would sometimes massage their genitals, the men said.
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