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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. January 12, 2010: The saga of Father Patrick Dunne, former parish priest of Our Lady of Sorrows ended today in Courtroom 104 in the County Courts building at 11:10 A.M., when Judge Jeffrey Cohen sentenced the priest who plead guilty last fall to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree for stealing $432,000 from OLS and using it to gamble.
Judge Cohen after allowing a statement from Bishop Dennis Sullivan, Vicar General of the New York Archdiocese, in which Bishop Sullivan, speaking of Father Dunne’s 2-plus years of rehabilation in a gambling rehab program as being very successful,to the point where the Bishop said “he is a man in recovery,” and of Dunne’s lifetime of good works, said the Archdiocese would be assigning him to a Dutchess County Parish. Dunne’s attorney, Richard Ferrante said 260 letters from OLS parishioners had written on the priest’s half, pleading leniency in sentencing.
Father Dunne read a statement to the judge before sentence was passed, saying that he took the money from the OLS Building fund and the OLS Stipend Funds to win money for the OLS building project, but running up losses, tried to win it back. He asked for forgiveness from his parish. It was the first time Mr. Dunne had stated anything for the record about his behavior in the year the case has moved slowly through the court. He was charged in June, 2009
The Judge after hearing these words said to Dunne in passing sentence, that “no jail time can free you from this gambling addiction, and jail would serve no purpose.” Judge Cohen sentenced Dunne to 5 years probation and 250 hours of community service that had to be approved by the Judge, and performed by December 31, 2010. Cohen also imposed a judgment on Dunne of $432,000.
Judge Cohen “he understood the Parish has been made whole, and has not lost any money.”
An informed source with Our Lady of Sorrows familiar with the monetary situation regarding restitution by the Archdiocese of the stolen money said that OLS had received a check from the Archdiocese insurance company subsidiary, less about a $100,000 deductible, leaving the archdiocese with approximately a $300,000 restitution. The priest of the parish will announce the exact amount to the parish, WPCNR was told.
The case was originally brought in June, 2009, when the District Attorney’s Office charged him with 2nd Degree Grand Larceny, (a felony with a maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years), stealing over $432,000 from parish accounts.
The District Attorney said that the priest diverted monies donated by parishioners for collection campaigns including the church building fund, a collection for Hurricane Katrina victims, and the weekly offertory.
The D.A.’s office said the priest accomplished this through writing and endorsing checks to himself and to “cash,” failed to provide an accurate accounting to church officials and “deliberately concealed the books and records relating to the parish development account.”
There is some question as to how the ongoing thievery was uncovered, but from what WPCNR has been told it was a combination of Father Dunne’s not accounting for certain moneys to the church management and a investigation of the Archdiocese, after the Archdiocese was called in, according to what Bishop Sullivan said in court today.
Father Dunne was removed from the parish in March 2008 and was charged in June 2009. On October 20 of last year he accepted a plea bargain offered by the District Attorney’s Office.
