By Jennifer Edwards Baker and Courtney King
Published: Jul. 31, 2024 at 11:17 PM EDT|Updated: Aug. 1, 2024 at 12:35 AM EDT
CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A newly released police report detailed the role a Mason priest had in destroying a laptop with alleged p*rnographic material in 2012.
The Rev. Barry Stechschulte resigned from St. Susanna Catholic Parish on Monday after hundreds of parishioners and parents of students at its school signed a petition calling for his dismissal.
It happened just weeks after he stood before the congregation at Sunday masses and admitted to ordering the destruction of a computer hard drive related to a possible child p*rnography investigation at another church more than a decade ago and then failing to report it to police for six years.
He apologized and said he was so shocked and disgusted by the images he saw that he wanted to make sure no one else would be subjected to seeing them. He also told the congregation he realizes now that not reporting it to the police for six years was a terrible mistake that he regrets.
According to a 2018 police report, Stechschulte found “inappropriate content, possibly child p*rn” on a computer that belonged to another priest at Holy Rosary in Saint Marys, Ohio.
Stechschulte instructed a deacon to “destroy it” after the deacon found videos of adult men and images of boys and the deacon did - with a blow torch, St. Marys Police Detective Lucas Turpin wrote in the incident report.
The material on the computer was used at Holy Rosary Church by its former priest, the Rev. Anthony Cutcher, it states. The deacon told Detective Turpin that Crutcher “was hom*osexual. He advised that (Father) Tony had downloaded male p*rnography on the parish computers.”
Stechschulte told the detective he found two file folders on the computer, one containing male hom*osexual p*rnography and another with pictures of boys.
The detective wrote in the report that he asked Stechschulte “when he was talking about boys if he meant nude” and Stechschulte responded he “did not look at it much because he was so taken aback by it. Father Barry said he told (the deacon) that he wanted the stuff erased. He advised that (the deacon) had physically destroyed the disc drive. Father Barry said at the time, he did not realize the repercussions of not revealing what they had found. Father Barry again said that he should not have destroyed the evidence.
“Father Barry said he did speak personally with Father Tony and Father Tony confided in Father Barry, saying that it was a bad time in his life and he has since resolved the issues. He said that he and (the deacon) are the only ones that know about the computer. Father Barry advised that he did contact the Archdiocese this morning and advised them that an investigation had been started. Father Barry advised that the pictures of the boys were in poses and did not appear to be random pictures. He also advised there had been no third-party allegations of any type of sexual misconduct with Faather Tony, besides the suspected child p*rn.”
Later in the report, the detective wrote that “Father Barry” told him both files contained “lots of pictures” and one was “videos of hom*osexual activity and the other a file folder with pictures of the boys. He did describe the boys as being in provocative poses. He again said he could not recall nudity or not, but it could have been.”
Cutcher was the pastor of St. Peter Catholic Church in Huber Heights when he resigned in early 2011 after he was placed on a leave of absence, according to a 2021 statement from St. Peter Catholic Church.
Cutcher was allegedly “texting a minor in a manner that was inconsistent with the requirements of the Decree on Child Protection,” according to a January 2021 letter from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
A spokeswoman for the archdiocese, which oversees both St. Susanna and Holy Rosary, confirmed this week Stechschulte resigned and Schnurr accepted it but would not comment further about Stechschulte when asked where he would be reassigned to another parish and, if so, where, or if he would retire now.
As for Cutcher, the spokeswoman said he “resigned from active priestly ministry in April of 2021, following his resignation as pastor of Pastoral Region XII — St. Peter, Or Lady of the Rosary, Holy Cross and St. Adalbert Parishes — in February of 2021. He does not have an assignment and will not be returning to priestly ministry.”
Neither Cutcher nor Stechschulte could be reached for this story.
In a message to parishioners on Tuesday, Archbishop Dennis Schnurr said he accepted Stechschulte’s resignation and was thankful for his dedicated service these past four years at St. Susanna.
Schnurr has appointed a retired priest, Jeff Kemper, as temporary administrator, effective immediately.
Kemper will be in charge until a permanent pastor is appointed.
He is a weekend associate pastor at St. Mary Magdalene Parish Family and used to lead Saint John The Baptist Church.
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