Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on WCPO’s duplicity:
Earlier this week, WCPO, the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, ran a four-part series on the way Ohio Catholic dioceses and religious orders deal with former priests accused of sexual abuse. It was highly critical, contending that the Church does not supervise these men once they are no longer in their employ. That is correct.
As I said on November 19, “no institution is required by law to track, never mind supervise, any former employee who was terminated because of sexual misconduct. Not even at WCPO.”
When I wrote this I had no idea that a former reporter for WCPO, Stephen Hill, was arrested in 2004 on eight counts of sexual battery and four counts of unlawful sex with a minor. We subsequently got a tip from someone and followed it up.
Hill actually videotaped himself raping four teen boys: he performed oral sex on them, and in return they performed anal sex on him. He lied to the boys by telling them that a woman named Dawn wanted to have sex with them, but only if they were blindfolded. They agreed. Dawn—meaning him—then sodomized them.
Hill pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual battery on the four boys—three brothers and a cousin; they were teenagers at the time.
He completed his five-year prison sentence in 2009 and returned to his home in Cincinnati. The WCPO general manager at the time, Bill Fee (who passed away last month), refused to talk to the Cincinnati Enquirer about Hill or about any potential employment opportunities.
Hill was not just an ordinary reporter. He was part of the WCPO’s I-Team, the same investigative arm of Channel 9 that recently completed a three-month investigation of former priests accused of sexual abuse.
So here’s what we need to know. Did WCPO supervise Hill when he was released from prison? That is what it is condemning the Catholic Church for not doing today. Is the station supervising Hill today, or is it washing its hands of him, the way Fee did? The new general manager is Jeff Brogan. Is he making sure that Hill is supervised today, or is he also doing nothing about the former I-Team reporter?
We all know what the answer is. Which is why WCPO is a proven fraud.
When you contact Brogan, ask him why doesn’t the “Culture of Silence” it accuses the Catholic Church of—it is posted prominently on its website—apply to WCPO?
Contact: jeff.brogan@wcpo.com
