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A former police chief who found a Catholic priest and an 18-year-old man half-dressed in a car near state game lands in Cambria County in 1981 said he often thinks about what more he could have done.
Father James F. Skupien was Bishop Guilfoyle High School principal at the time he was found with the young man. Skupien told police he was counseling the teen, according to the grand jury report.
Skupien later told his superiors that he was driving a tractor on a farm and fell into a pond that night.
Metzger and another officer pulled up to an area known as a spot for teenage lovers and underage drinkers and after getting out of their patrol car, walked back and found Skupien and the 18-year-old shirtless in a diocese car, according to the grand jury report.
“You have in the back of your mind, ‘something is going on here,'” said Dave Metzger, who was then police chief for Dean Township. “But this kid isn’t saying anything.”
Metzger, 64, recalled making Skupien clean up an ashtray he had dumped out and that Skupien had defecated on the ground near the vehicle. The young man with Skupien didn’t say anything, and Metzger said that because he was an adult, no laws were being broken by the men.
Metzger said he ordered them to leave, and later when he consulted the Cambria County District Attorney’s Office, he was told no crime had been committed and not to pursue it.
“I still felt funny about it,” Metzger said. Metzger said he talked to Monsignor Philip Saylor, confidante of then-Bishop James Hogan, about his concerns, even though he wasn’t Catholic.
“I was more concerned because he was a principal for a high school,” Metzger said.
The grand jury report released by Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Tuesday noted that a memorandum about Skupien was found in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese’s “Secret Archives.” The memo noted how Hogan was involved with hiding the actions of Skupien, which the grand jury concluded had already sexually abused at least one minor by the time he was found in the car.
“While it was kept from (the) P.D. (police department) report, and in media, there is a degree of awareness and discussion within the local P.D.’s (police departments),” the memo stated. The grand jury pointed out that Hogan made note that “Chief M.” was “Thanked for his discretion.”
Skupien, who was ordained in 1966, served churches in Portage and Altoona before a stint as assistant principal and principal at the high school. He then was transferred to Williamsburg and Bellwood, despite the leadership of the church knowing about alleged abuse by the priest. He retired in 1995.
The grand jury was able to track down the 18-year-old found with Skupien 35 years later and learned Skupien and the man had a long-standing relationship where Skupien would pay the man for sex. The two had just exchanged sex for cash when Metzger and the other officer found them, the report noted.
Metzger said in no way did he ever accept anything from the diocese in exchange for turning a blind eye to Skupien’s activities and that he reported the incident to both the church and the district attorney’s office.
“If he was underage, we would have investigated it,” Metzger said.
The grand jury concluded that Hogan “cared more about the reputation of himself and the diocese than whatever Father Skupien was doing in that car in 1981.”
The grand jury found a victim of Skupien came forward in 2008 “with a specific allegation” – that Skupien forced him to engage in oral sex between 1968 and 1971. Skupien, who died in 1996, was assistant principal at Bishop Guilfoyle during that time.
Metzger said he’s thought about the incident a lot over the years.
“It just affected me personally,” said Metzger, who is now an elected constable in Altoona. “I knew something was wrong. Proving it was a different matter.”
Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.