York County DA: Evidence from clergy sexual abuse case likely destroyed

(York) — No records exist at the York County District Attorney’s Office in relation to a decades-old clergy abuse case referenced in the recent grand jury report, the district attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

The grand jury report, released by Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office last week, alluded to investigative records and evidence being forwarded to the York County DA’s office in 1995, which was then investigated by the York City Police Department.

According to the grand jury report, the Diocese of Harrisburg turned over “photographic negatives and videotape cassettes” to the DA’s office in 1995. The grand jury report details widespread sexual abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania.

Allegations specifically about Rev. Herbert Shank, one of more than 300 priests named in the grand jury report, were passed along in 1995 to York County law enforcement. The report said the Diocese of Harrisburg notified the York County DA about Shank, whose assignments included St. Rose of Lima in York, and turned over video and photographic evidence.

In 2017, agents from the attorney general’s office spoke with a York City police officer who wasn’t working on the case in 1995 but was familiar with it, according to the report. The officer said Shank taped TV shows on VHS, then spliced video of himself assaulting young boys into the VHS tapes.

But, in a news release issued by the district attorney’s office shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday, District Attorney Dave Sunday said “Both my office and the York City Police Department conducted thorough and diligent searches of its records and files to see if any such materials exist.”

Sunday, who was elected in 2017 and took office in January, was not with the office in 1995.

The searches were unsuccessful, Sunday said in the release, citing statewide accreditation standards that any evidence or reports forwarded would have been destroyed because no charges were filed.

Shank, who’s now 76 and lives in Adams County, has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Sunday said his office and all York County law enforcement “will extensively investigate any and all credible allegations of sexual abuse, including any offenses involving clergy within York County referenced in or associated with” the grand jury report.

Sunday’s office has initiated an electronic tip line for information about clergy abuse in York County: emailing DAtips@yorkcountypa.gov is preferred, but for those without email, call 717-771-9600 and ask to speak to a county detective.

This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The York Daily Record.