Four men sue former Ohio priest for alleged abuse

The Associated Press

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Three men and a 12-year-old boy sued two Roman Catholic dioceses yesterday, saying they were abused by a priest who was dismissed in Youngstown and later hired by the Saginaw, Mich., diocese.

The civil lawsuit was the eighth of its kind filed in two days in Ohio by Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., attorney whose firm said it has handled more than 500 cases of abuse by clergy in 20 years.

While many sexual abuse allegations against Ohio priests are from the 1960s to 1980s, the Michigan boy in the latest lawsuit said he was abused as recently as last year.

The Rev. John E. Hammer and both the Youngstown and Saginaw dioceses are named in the lawsuit, assigned to Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge R. Scott Krichbaum.

Hammer, 49, announced his resignation from the pulpit of St. Mary Church in Alma on April 27 after the allegations from Youngstown emerged. He had been a pastor at churches in Alma and nearby St. Louis, Mich., in the Saginaw diocese.