Former priest facing sex charges dies 8 days after being found unresponsive in Allegheny County Jail

A 77-year-old man being held in Allegheny County Jail died Sunday at a local hospital — eight days after being found unresponsive in his cell.

Paul Spisak, who was jailed Jan. 4 after police said he used a cellphone to record a 13-year-old boy in a Target bathroom stall in Pittsburgh, was found unresponsive on Jan. 22, according to jail spokesman Jesse Geleynse.

Medical staff responded, and Spisak was then reported to be alert and stable, Geleynse said. He was taken to a local hospital.

The hospital reported that Spisak had numerous medical complications and suggested that his next of kin be notified to engage in conversations about treatment, Geleynse said.

On Jan. 28, Spisak, a former priest who had been named in the state attorney general’s 2018 report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, was released from jail custody because of his condition, Geleynse said. He died two days later.

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• Former priest secretly filmed teen boy in Target bathroom in Pittsburgh, police say
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Geleynse said the incident involving Spisak will be reviewed by jail administration and internal affairs. The medical examiner’s office has not yet released the cause and manner of death.

Members of the Jail Oversight Board said no one was alerted that Spisak died.

Geleynse said that jail policies and procedures are geared toward informing the next of kin and close family. As for the Jail Oversight Board, he said it can be notified of such incidents at the board’s monthly meetings.

Twelve people have died at the jail — or after being hospitalized from the jail — since April 2020.

Bret Grote, the legal director of the Abolitionist Law Center which advocates for those in custody, said Allegheny County Jail has a higher death rate per capita than other facilities, including notorious Rikers Island in New York.

“For our society, a death rate as high as it is (at Allegheny County Jail) is not a normal part of incarceration,” he said.

Grote questioned what led to Spisak being found unresponsive, asking whether it was a medical emergency, self harm or something else.

“Maybe there’s no fault. We don’t know that when you don’t have information,” he said.

Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, a member of the Jail Oversight Board, said the jail and county administration refuse to provide even basic information to members.

Instead, members learn about incidents such as the one involving Spisak from the news media or whistleblowers inside the jail.

“We are statutorily mandated to protect the health and well-being of everyone in that jail,” Hallam said. “It is in bad faith that the jail releases folks from their custody prior to their death in order to get around notifying the (board) or being held accountable for a death that resulted from something that did happen in the jail on their watch.”

Grote said the administrative change in custody has the result of keeping Spisak from being counted as a statistic when Allegheny County Jail reports in-custody deaths.

“They’re claiming to have nothing to do with this because they discharged him,” Grote said. “That’s chicanery.”