UPDATE:: Ex-Franciscan friars plead no contest, get probation in child-sex coverup caseChild endangerment and criminal conspiracy charges have been dismissed against one of the three Franciscan friars accused of failing to properly supervise Brother Stephen Baker, a suspected predator accused of molesting youth while working at a Johnstown Catholic high school.
Two former Franciscan friars from Altoona each have been sentenced to 5 years of probation after pleading no contest to charges that they shielded a member of their order who sexually abused more than 100 children.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Friday that Robert D'Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, entered their pleas to charges of endangering the welfare of children before being sentenced by Blair County Judge Judge Jolene G. Kopriva. The two also were fined $1,000 each.
The AG's office arrested D'Aversa and Criscitelli two years ago. Charges against a third defendant, former Friar Giles Schinelli, were dismissed on statute of limitations grounds.
In a ruling issued Monday, Blair County Judge Jolene G. Kopriva concluded that the state’s previous statute of limitations — requiring prosecution of sexual offenses against minors to be filed no later than two years after the minor turned 18 — would have expired in 2014 for friar Anthony “Giles” Schinelli, a former administrator for the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, Hollidayburg.
But due to a 2007 change in the statute extending the prosecution time frame to a minor’s 50th birthday, Kopriva concluded that friars Robert J. D’Aversa and Anthony J. Criscitelli, who succeeded Schinelli as ministers provincial, are subject to charges and their cases should move forward.
Judge tosses charges against friar | News, Sports, Jobs - Altoona Mirror
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