Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Ernest Paone, seen here in a scanned photo from a 1984 Potter Jr. High yearbook, is alleged to be the same man implicated by a grand jury report released last week that alleged decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups by the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.
The screenshot, taken from the "40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury Report 1 Interim – Redacted," is a request that Paone sent asking for a "letter of good standing" to be sent to a parish in Los Angeles.
This screenshot is from the Pittsburgh Diocese granting Paone's request for a "letter of good standing" that was sent to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
One of the most widespread investigations ever to focus on the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania resulted in the release of the "40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury Report 1 Interim – Redacted," alleging decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups by church officials across the state.
"We, the members of this grand jury, need you to hear this," the report said in the opening introduction. "There have been other reports about child sex abuse within the Catholic church. But never on this scale."
According to the 1,356-page report, the grand jury subpoenaed and reviewed half a million pages of internal documents, heard testimony from dozens of witnesses and came to the conclusion that there are credible allegations against more than 300 "predator priests" with more than 1,000 child victims identified.
They said the members of the grand jury went on to say that they "believe that the real number – of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward – is in the thousands."
Former students remember Paone as 'creepy' and abusive
The Rev. Ernest C. Paone was implicated last week in the "40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury Report 1 Interim – Redacted," alleging decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups by Roman Catholic Church officials across the state of Pennsylvania.
For many students who attended James E. Potter Junior High School in the 1970s and 80s, the name Paone rang a bell.
Paone, they said, is the same man who taught social studies and other subjects at Potter for almost 20 years.
When news broke about Paone's ties to the grand jury report, several former students spoke out about their interactions with the teacher.
Pierre Domercq, who graduated from Potter in 1982, recalled his only interaction with Paone during his time at the junior high school.
Domercq said Paone's reputation around campus at the time was clear.
"He was creepy," he said. "When he looked at you, it made your skin crawl."
Domercq recalled one incident that stood out to him, and once he told his parents the story, they removed him from Paone's class.
"He would put a chair at the front of the room facing the class, then he would stand directly behind the chair with his crotch just above the back of the chair and rub his crotch against the backrest as he would look at his targets," Domercq said. "It was the creepiest most disgusting thing I have ever seen any teacher do."
Bret Wills, who moved with his family from Palo Alto to Fallbrook, posted on a Fallbrook High School alumni page, "He was without a doubt, a sexual predator."
During a phone interview, Wills, who attended Potter in 1972-1973, explained his experiences with Paone.
"He definitely set his sights on me, like right off the bat in school," Wills said. "From the first day of school, he started giving me special attention. He treated me much differently than a lot of the other kids.
"At first, I was, 'Oh this is cool, who doesn't want special attention?' But then it got more and more clear to me what he was doing. He was leering at me all the time. One day, he called out to me and said, 'You're decadent, Mr. Wills.'"
Wills said that Paone talked to him during that same school year about taking him on a trip to Mexico.
"He said he did that every year with special boys," he said. "He said he did work with kids in Mexico and it was part of his religious thing."
Paone, he said, wanted to meet with him after class.
"I remember standing in front of his desk and him staring at me," Wills said. "He kept talking about how he was going to take me on this trip 'deep into the heart of Mexico,' and he kept repeating it just like that."
He said Paone went on explaining how to convince his parents to let him go on the trip.
"He said he had a systematic approach on how to deal with parents and how I could convince my parents to trust me and him," Wills said. "He said I should first bring the idea up casually, then more and more, until finally telling my parents about this trip that he was planning. He said the trip would be over the entire summer."
It was at that point that Wills said, even as a seventh-grader, he knew it wasn't a good idea.
"The way he said that, I knew it wasn't good," Wills said. "So, I pulled way back, and in fact, I was kind of nasty to him. Everyone liked to mock him by calling him 'Ernie,' and I even did it to his face.
"I was more abusive further on, but still he tried to woo me back. It seemed like the nastier I was to him, the more he seemed to enjoy it."
Eventually, Wills said, Paone backed off.
"All these years later, I actually wonder if he took other boys on that trip," he said. "He wanted sex – I just knew even at that age – from all the other things he said in class, you just knew."
Wills said his older sister had Paone for speech and maybe Spanish and had stories to tell about Paone's behavior, though he didn't want to elaborate. His younger sister, he said, was removed from Paone's classroom by his parents very soon after they learned that he was her teacher.
"That was strange because I hadn't told my parents my story at that point," Wills said. "It is just a sad thing that (Paone) touched so many lives in some way or another. Because I have no doubt that he would have done something to me in some way had it continued."
On social media forums, former students of varying ages and sex told stories of verbal and even physical abuse at the hands of Paone.
Bill Billingsley, assistant superintendent of human resources for Fallbrook Union Elementary School District, confirmed Monday, Aug. 20, that Paone was employed by the district from September 1967 through June 1986. The district has not commented on the allegations.
"I know that at least my parents had to have complained about him," Wills said.
"Why did the administration allow him to stay?" Domercq said. "That couldn't have been the first sign."
One of those "predator priests" named in the report was the Rev. Ernest C. Paone – a name familiar to many in the Fallbrook area.
Paone died in 2012, but by all accounts, he is the same man who taught social studies at James E. Potter Junior High School for 20 years.
According to an alumni report published in 2008, the University of San Diego's alumni magazine said that Paone was a graduate student in 1970 and later taught at Potter Jr. High School. And according to several published reports, the San Diego County Office of Education located Paone in the state teachers' retirement system as joining in 1966 and retiring in 1986.
Further, in a story by Times of San Diego, a spokesman for the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing reported late last week that Paone was "issued a secondary teaching credential in 1966 and a junior college teaching credential in 1970."
Bill Billingsly, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for Fallbrook Union Elementary School District, confirmed Monday that Paone was employed by the district from September 1967 through June 1986.
The district has not made comment on the allegations.
When news connecting Paone with the grand jury report in Pennsylvania hit social media, it subsequently shocked many in the Fallbrook community, especially those that attended Potter during his tenure at the school.
Paone features prominently in the grand jury report, an entire chapter focuses on his time with the churches in the Pittsburgh area. Beginning on page 215 and titled, "The Case of Father Ernest Paone," the report said Paone was ordained in 1957 and was "assigned to five separate parishes within the first nine years of his ministry."
The first recorded Paone-related issue happened in 1962 when the Rev. Edmund Sheedy, the pastor of St. Monica where Paone was serving as parochial vicar, "notified Bishop John Wright that he had interceded to prevent Paone from being arrested for 'molesting young boys of the parish and the illegal use of guns with even younger parishioners.'"
Sheedy told Wright that that Paone's behavior was "scandalous to the parishioners" and the diocese subsequently reassigned Paone to Madonna of Jerusalem in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania.
Then in 1964, Robert Masters, the district attorney of Beaver County, sent a letter to Bishop Vincent Leonard of the Diocese of Pittsburgh to inform him that "in order to prevent unfavorable publicity," he had "halted all investigations into similar incidents involving young boys." Though Paone had been caught molesting boys and using guns with young children, no punishment or reprimand was issued to Paone.
In testimony provided to the grand jury, Masters admitted that at the time he wanted the political support of the diocese.
The report indicated that in 1966, Paone was given an indefinite leave of absence "for reasons bound up with your psychological and physical health as well as spiritual well-being." After his leave, he relocated to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and moved again to the Diocese of San Diego in 1967.
By September that year, Paone was teaching in Fallbrook.
In 1968, Paone asked to be recommended for faculties within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. According to the report, the Rev. Anthony Bosco, chancellor of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, said there would be "no objection to Father being granted the faculties of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles."
Again in 1975, a second request was made and granted "to certify that the Reverend Ernest C. Paone is a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh on leave of absence, but in good standing. He has permission of his Ordinary to offer Mass."
During his almost two decades away from Pennsylvania, reports indicated that he served as a pastor of a parish in Diamond Bar and two parishes in the San Diego area – Mary Star of the Sea in Oceanside and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Encinitas.
During his time in California, according to the report, there was no information discovered that indicated that Paone had sexually abused children.
But in 1994, Paone's past caught up with him again. The Diocese of Pittsburgh received another complaint of child sexual abuse committed by Paone in the 1960s.
That same year, in a confidential memorandum obtained by the grand jury, Paone's "various assignments and sexual abuse complaints were again listed in detail," the report said.
In yet another letter, the report said, Paone's emotional and physical health were questioned as early as the 1950s, and the grand jury had records indicating that diocese knew of Paone's sexual abuse charges as early as 1962.
Finally, in 2002, the Diocese of Pittsburgh removed the faculties of Paone and placed him on administrative leave.
"Approximately 41 years after the diocese learned that Paone was sexually assaulting children, he was finally retired from active ministry," the grand jury said. "In spite of statements to the Vatican, the clear and present threat that Paone posed to children was hidden and kept secret from parishioners in three states."
Paone submitted his resignation from the ministry in good standing in 2003, allowing him to collect his pension.
The request was approved.
Finally, in 2006, Paone moved back to Pennsylvania. A Pittsburgh parish reported the Paone was asking inappropriate questions of children, and another priest removed Paone from his duty.
Six years later, Paone died from complications from Alzheimer's disease.
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