HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Franciscan friar accused of molesting students at schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania decades ago had stabbed himself in the heart after leaving a note apologizing for his actions, a coroner said.
The note left by Brother Stephen Baker, whose body was found Saturday at the St. Bernardine Monastery in Hollidaysburg, was “not addressed to anyone specific,” Blair County Coroner Patricia Ross told the Altoona Mirror, which first reported the note’s contents Tuesday. Ross didn’t immediately return a message left by The Associated Press.
“The note was an apology for his behavior,” Ross told the newspaper, without offering specifics about the note which was just a few lines.
Baker, 62, was named Jan. 16 when the Youngstown, Ohio, diocese announced 11 legal settlements stemming from his alleged abuse of students at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio, three decades ago.
Since then, Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney involved in the Ohio cases, said former Kennedy students have come forward to allege abuse by Baker.
Garabedian and other attorneys said about 20 several former students at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, Pa., also have come forward with similar accusations against Baker, who was a teacher and trainer with the school’s baseball team. The former Pennsylvania students allege that Baker assaulted or molested students under the guise of providing therapeutic treatment or medical care for sports injuries, said Michael Parrish, the Johnstown attorney representing some of those students.
Baker taught and coached at Kennedy from 1986 to the early 1990s and was at Bishop McCort from 1992 to 2000.
Father Patrick Quinn, the head of Baker’s order, the Third Order Regular Franciscans, has said it’s not clear what impact, if any, the death would have on the claims that have surfaced.
In the Kennedy case, mediation settlements involved the school, the Third Order Regular Franciscans and the Youngstown diocese, which said it was unaware of the allegations until nearly 20 years after the alleged abuse.
Youngstown Bishop George Murry said Monday that when he was informed sometime in 2011 about the alleged abuse at Kennedy, he called Franciscans and was told Baker had already been removed from public ministry to keep him away from children.
Because of statute of limitation issues, the cases were resolved without criminal charges or lawsuits, Garabedian said.
It was not immediately clear what may become of the Pennsylvania allegations.
- Posted January 30, 2013
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Coroner: Friar sorry, stabbed self in heart
headlines Detroit
- Dean’s Fellow carves impressive path of service during law school
- Former clerk and attorney charged after alleged unauthorized access to 2020 voter data
- State Supreme Court: Unions must represent all covered workers, even nonmembers
- Daily Briefs
- Michigan Law student presented with coveted Wanda Nash Award
headlines National
- Civil legal aid lawyers are often the last line of defense. Why are there so few of them?
- Bankruptcy law firm files for Chapter 11 after losing advertising dispute
- Dentons and Boies Schiller face $300M racketeering suit after client loses international arbitration
- Mother’s Day and the changing face of family dynamics and custody arrangements
- Federal judge reprimanded for handcuffing teen spectator in scared-straight approach
- Lawyer whose firm sued Boeing finds emergency slide that fell from company’s plane near his home