A clergyman's Pennsylvania suicide after student molestation accusations focuses attention on his 1983-85 employment at at St. Mary's Preparatory School in Orchard Lake.
Taryn Asher of Fox 2 News looks at the connection across states and decades:
Brother Stephen Baker is accused of molesting a dozen students at Catholic high schools in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the late 1980s and 1990s. One alleged victim explained how the Franciscan friar used his position as an athletic trainer to treat injuries with massages that would lead to the molestation. . . .
Last Saturday, days after a lawsuit was settled and 60 more accusers came forward, Baker, a former coach and teacher, took his own life at a Pennsylvania monastery, stabbing himself in the chest and reportedly leaving a suicide note behind apologizing to some of his victims.
The Archdiocese of Detroit responded to the station's inquiry with a statement saying it "has no record of sexual abuse complaints involving minors brought against Mr. Baker during his two years in Michigan."
"Neither the archdiocese nor Orchard Lake Schools ever received any reports/advisories from the other locations where Brother Baker worked. Additionally, we were not informed of the legal claims made against Br. Baker or his apparent suicide last weekend."
