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DA: AG Taking Over Catholic School Abuse Probe

EBENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - A county prosecutor says the state attorney general's office is taking over the investigation of sex abuse allegations against a Franciscan friar who helped as an athletic trainer at a Roman Catholic high school in Johnstown from 1992 to 2001.

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat reports Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan received a letter Friday from Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

Several former students at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown are suing school officials and the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, which formerly ran the school, for the alleged actions of Brother Stephen Baker.

The 62-year-old friar committed suicide Jan. 26 at a monastery in Newry by stabbing himself in the heart. That happened a little more than a week after the Youngstown diocese disclosed financial settlements in alleged abuse cases involving 11 students at another school in Warren, Ohio.

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