David Hickton (Photo: Matthew Sobocinski)

On Thursday, November 29, 2018, USA Today featured NAFUSA member David Hickton (WD Pennsylvania, 2010-2016) in a front page article ‘Time to put a stop to this’: Why a Catholic prosecutor who witnessed abuse took on his own church. When Hickton served as the United States Attorney he brought a RICO indictment against the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese charging it as an interstate criminal enterprise, based on allegations that for years several priests had abused hundreds of children. Hickton told USA Today that as a sixth-grade basketball player in a Catholic grade school, “he regularly witnessed the agony of teammates after they were violated in the school’s locker room” by the basketball coach and the Catholic priest did nothing when allegations surfaced. Hickton was not physically abused himself.

Hickton is the founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security.