Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer

Ohio's ties to PA grand jury report

A Pennsylvania grand jury has released a searing 1,000-page report detailing decades of sexual abuse by priests in six of the state's eight Catholic Dioceses that provided an unprecedented view into the scale of abuse and the lengths that the Catholic Church went to cover up allegations.

Among the hundreds of allegations that the grand jury uncovered were claims by two separate victims that priests took them to Cleveland. One priest gave a boy so much alcohol here that he blacked out, and the other said the priest touched his leg in the two-hour car ride from Pittsburgh, according to the report.

A third allegation included a phone call made from Cleveland. And a former Catholic school teacher in Erie moved to Cleveland after she was convicted of sexually abusing a student.

The report also mentioned Ohio several times.

Many of the allegations uncovered in the report are decades old and far past the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, so the grand jury could only file charges against two priests as a result of their investigation.

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Abused on trip to Geauga Lake

A 45-year-old man in November 2007 sent a letter to a church parish in Fayette County, Pennsylvania and said that Rev. Henry J. Marcinek had abused him as a young boy in the early 1970s, when he was 10 years old, and the abuse went on for more than a decade, the report says.

The man told a church official in a subsequent interview that his family trusted Marcinek, who exploited that trust to take him on vacations. As an example, the man said that Marcinek took him on to Sea World and Geauga Lake amusement park and stayed in a hotel together around 1973. The two stayed in a hotel room together, and Marcinek sexually abused him there, the report says.

The man said he was 11 years old at the time.

Marcinek died in 1987.

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Abused outside bars, aboard boat

Accusations against Rev. David Dzermejko surfaced in 2009, 35 years after he was ordained and while the priest actively ministered in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. A woman called the diocese in June 2009 and said that her husband told her about abuse that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. Her husband killed himself two months before the woman called, the report says. They received another accusation that same month from a second victim who said that he was abused as an altar boy during the same time period.

Another man came forward in 2012 and said that in the late 1980s, a friend introduced him to Dzermejko, when the man was a 15-year-old boy living in Cambridge, a small city in Southeast Ohio.

Dzermejko passed himself off as a hospital administrator and soon took the boy to bars and restaurants in Wheeling, West Virginia and Pittsburgh. He abused him outside of two bars, one in each city, the report says. The boy also said Dzermejko abused him on his boat, which was named "The Seaman," and in the church rectory. He also said Dzermejko took him to the Crown Plaza Hotel in Columbus, but he said he could not remember any abuse occurred there.

Dzermejko was placed on leave and law enforcement launched an investigation. He was arrested in April 2013 on possession of child pornography charges and admitted to investigators that he had travelled to Thailand to have sexual encounters with teenage boys as recently as that same year, the report says.

He eventually pleaded guilty in federal court and was sentenced to three years in prison, a sentence he began serving in June 2014. Dzermejko was stripped of his priesthood in November 2015, the report says.

Records obtained by the grand jury showed that the diocese placed $350 a month in Dzermejko's commissary account while he was in prison, the report says.

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Trip to wrestling tournament in Columbus, Ohio

A man came forward in 2013 and said that Rev. John Bauer, who is currently a pastor at Our Lady of Consolation in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania, would wrestle him and other boys and give them alcohol. The man recalled a trip to a wrestling tournament in Columbus, Ohio, and said he remembered the pastor giving him and two other boys alcohol to drink in the car on the way to the tournament.

The report does not say when that trip occurred.

The accusations surfaced as part of a complaint that was lodged against Romero, the report says.

Bauer said he remembered the trip to Columbus, but denied giving them alcohol. He said he often would wrestle with the boys and join them in their workouts because he enjoyed a good workout, the report says. He also posited that his accuser may have mistaken him for Romero, who is deceased.

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Former coach, teacher make list of barred employees

In April of this year, the Diocese of Erie released a list of 51 priests and laypersons who violated policies meant to protect children and "will not be accepted as employees or volunteers" of the dioceses, the letter states.

Two of those named on the list currently live in Ohio, including one who lives in Cleveland.

Joseph Votino, the former dean of students and basketball coach at Kennedy Catholic High School, was sentenced to a year in prison in 2001 after he pleaded guilty to corrupting the morals of a minor. Votino, who lives outside Youngstown, had been accused of having sex with three 17-year-old girls who were students at the school.

Megan Fecko moved to Cleveland after she served a prison stint in 2007. The former English teacher at Villa Maria Academy pleaded no contest to two counts of indecent assault tied to sexual abuse of a 14-year-old student.

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Road trip to Cleveland

The Rev. Joseph L. Sredzinski, who died in 2015 at the age of 81, put his hand on a boy's leg and forced that boy to hold his hand during a car ride to Cleveland, the report says.

Sredzinski was a priest at St. Joseph in Everson, Pennsylvania when he took two boys to Cleveland on June 20, 1991. He put his hand on the leg of a boy sitting in the front passenger seat, and made the boy put his hand on Sredzinski's leg. He also forced the boy to hold his hand, the report says.

The boy's parents found out about Sredzinski's behavior during the car ride and warned him to stay away from their son, the report says.

Officials also learned of an earlier incident involving Sredzinski and the boy. Sredzinski reportedly had "roaming hands" and became visibly aroused while swimming with the boy at a dam in Pennsylvania, the report says.

In May of 1991, a police officer found Sredzinski with a boy in a car parked in a cemetery in Everson, Pennsylvania. There are conflicting reports of whether the boy at the cemetery was the same one from the trip to Cleveland, the report notes.

Former Everson Mayor Tim Shoemaker subsequently met with Sredzinski and Father Roger Statnick to discuss the cemetery incident. Sredzinski was forbidden from having contact with juveniles outside of business hours and in public areas of the church, the report says.

Sredzinski left St. Joseph in 1999 but held positions at various churches until 2014, according to his employment history.

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200 acts, including some in Ohio, investigated

Rev. Robert Wolk, who was the assistant chancellor of the Diocese of Pittsburgh for more than 15 years, was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison in 1990 after he was convicted of engaging in sexual acts with minors in two separate counties, the report says.

A newspaper article from the case quotes then Washington County District Attorney John C. Pettit as saying that investigators were still looking into more than 200 acts that Wolk was suspected of committing with a boy in Canada, Virginia, Florida and Ohio, the report says.

Pettit said the diocese's cooperation was "minimal at best" and at times hindered their investigation, the report says.

Three more victims came forward after Wolk's release from prison and accused him of sexually abusing them in the 1980s, the report says.

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No charges in Colmbiana County

Rev. Robert Castelucci is accused of sexually abusing several children in his 30 years of ministry in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the report says.

A man sent him a letter in 1994 asking to speak to him and said that "I was 13 or 14 when you talked me into masturbation parties only to offer me money latter," the report says. Castelucci responded with a letter of his own asking him not to get church officials involved and said he "would never have gotten sexually involved with him had he known how much difficulty it would have caused," the report says.

The diocese determined the accusations credible, but never notified law enforcement. The man filed suit along with 32 others in 2007 and received a joint $1.25 million settlement.

But the grand jury uncovered information about Castelucci's additional victims, including a 1999 accusation from a 17-year-old boy in Columbiana County, Ohio, which sits south of Youngstown and borders Pennsylvania. Castelucci moved there after he took a leave of absence in 1994 to care for his sick mother and, according to the report, was accused of giving the teenager pornography and performed oral sex on him.

The church placed him on administrative leave while the incident played out. In February 2000, Castelucci told the diocese that "the authorities of Columbiana County, Ohio had decided not to press any charges against him," the report says.

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Performing mass in Warren while on leave

Rev. Anthony Cipolla was moved from parish to parish from the 1970s to the 1980s in the Diocese of Pittsburgh as sexual abuse allegations chased him, the report notified.

In 1996, eight years after Cipolla took a leave of absence, the diocese received a letter from a man in Warren who claimed that Cipolla was performing masses regularly in his parents' home, where he was staying part time. They also heard from others that Cipolla was celebrating mass and telling everyone that he was a priest in good standing, the report says.

Cipolla was dismissed as a priest in 2002. The next year, the diocese received information that Cipolla was still holding masses and acting as a priest, the report says.

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Trips to Dayton, Myrtle Beach

A man came forward in 2002 and accused Rev. Gregory F. Premoshis, of the Diocese of Greensburg, of sexually abusing him as a high school student from 1980 to 1982. Premoshis gave him gifts, including alcohol, and let him borrow his car, the report says. Premoshis allowed him to stay overnight in the church rectory, where he would roughhouse with the boy, sometimes wearing only underwear. He started to fondle his genitals, the report says, and sexually abused him in his sleep.

Premoshis took the boy on trips to places including Atlantic City, New Jersey, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and to Dayton, where they shared the same hotel room, the report says. During one of the trips, he awoke to find the priest fondling his genitals, the report says. The priest jumped back into his own bed and, when the boy asked about the incident the next morning, the priest said he didn't remember, the report says.

Premoshis admitted in a March 2002 interview with the church to giving the boy alcohol, and sleeping in the same bed with him. He said that he aroused when the two wrestled. He also said he may have had a "wet dream" that caused the boy to think he was sexually assaulted, the report says.

Bishop Anthony Bosco allowed Premoshis to retire early from priesthood and collect 70 percent of his retirement benefits in an agreement that saw him seek counseling, the report says. The church paid a $5,000 settlement to the victim and paid for 90 counseling sessions.

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Seminary in Columbus

Rev. Guy Marisco testified before the grand jury and admitted to molesting at least four boys in the 1980s while he worked as a priest in the Diocese of Harrisburg. During his testimony, Marisco said he went to seminary school in Columbus when he was 14 years old, and stayed for 12 years until he was assigned to a parish in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

The report does not mention that any abuse occurred in Columbus.

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'Would call from Cleveland'

Rev. John Phillip Schanz, who died in 2010 at the age of 86, sexually abused at least seven victims, including a teenage boy who later attended Cuyahoga Community College, according to the report.

The boy's abuse began in 1980, when he was 15 years old, and continued until 1983. He had no friends and was from a dysfunctional family, according to notes taken by Bishop Donald Trautman, the former head of the Diocese of Erie in Pennsylvania.

Schanz, who worked at the Cathedral at Gannon University at the time, invited the boy to his home on several occasions and gave him alcohol. Schanz also took the boy to his cabin in Fairview, Pennsylvania, where he forced himself on the boy and rubbed oil on the boy's body, the report says.

The boy later attended Cuyahoga Community College, but became severely depressed and began to consider himself a womanizer, the report says.

The boy told Trautman about the abuse in 1996, the same year Schanz retired from Gannon College. Trautman also took notes that appear to come from a conversation with Schanz; the notes read in part "no sex involvement would call from Cleveland," the report says.

The boy subsequently signed a release saying he received $8,800 to pay for his education and psychological counseling. The release also exempted Schanz, the Diocese of Erie and Gannon College from liability over Schanz's conduct, the report says.

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Priest went on to minister in Youngstown

Rev. Gabriel Patil, a priest of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul who was given permission by the Bishop of the Diocese of Allentown to minister under their organization in the 1970s, played hide-and-seek with four boys from age 7 to 9 years old inside a Catholic high school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and made them sit on their lap and fondle their genitals, the report says. The victims came forward in 2003 and later filed lawsuits, but they were dismissed because the statute of limitations had passed, the report says.

After the 1970s, Patil served as a priest in Ontario, Canada, Buffalo, New York and Youngstown, the report says.

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Blacked out in Cleveland

Rev. Michael C. Romero, who died in 2000, took a boy on a trip to Cleveland and gave him alcohol, the report says.

The boy's mother reported the abuse in 2012, and the Diocese of Pittsburgh gave her some referral information for the city her son lived at that time. The Diocese of Pittsburgh took no additional action until the boy's girlfriend called to report the abuse again in 2013, the report says.

The boy's mother told the Diocese that the abuse happened sometime between 1978 and 1982, while Romero was a parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception in Washington, Pennsylvania. The boy attended school there.

Romero bought the boy gifts, including a ski jacket. He also took the boy on a trip to Cleveland.

During that trip, Romero gave the boy enough alcohol to get him drunk, and the boy could not remember anything, the report says.

The boy later became a heavy drinker, and the mother attributed his drinking to sexual abuse and the alcohol he got from Romero, the report says.

Romero died more than a decade before the mother relayed the allegations to the Diocese of Pittsburgh.