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Pennsylvania priest investigation crosses into Cleveland

Some predatory priests from Pennsylvania took victims out of state to Cleveland to prey on them.

Cleveland, Ohio -- The headline Tuesday out of Pennsylvania was the discovery of 1,000 victims of sexual abuse at the hands of 300 predatory priests. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's investigation says it was spread throughout six diocese around the state.

It is the largest examination of Catholic Church abuse in American History.

A review of the grand jury report shows multiple references to Cleveland. On multiple occasions, Pennsylvania priests would take their victims out of town with the goal of disorienting them.

"It's not uncommon for priests to devise a reason to take young boys out of town -- to go camping or to go to the theater," said Anthony Cardone, a survivor of priest abuse and an advocate for victims through the SNAP Network, which helps victims of institutional sexual abuse.

Allegations against Fr. Joseph Sredzinski claim that he drove a boy from near Pittsburgh to Cleveland with the boy's hands on his leg for much of the ride.

Fr. Michael Romero, the report says, took a boy to Cleveland -- plied him with alcohol, and sexually abused him.

The boy's mother says her son "got so drunk that he could not remember anything afterward. She stated that her son was now a heavy drinker and she believed that it stemmed back to the sexual abuse and his early exposure to alcohol by the priest."

300 predatory priests, spanning over the last 70 years.

But the number two stands out.

Only two of the priests named Tuesday can be prosecuted. The rest are either dead -- or the case is too old to be prosecuted.

"It wrecks a kid for life," Cardone says. "I'm 71-years old. And everyday, or every other day it comes up. I didn't ask for that. It changed my whole life."

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