By Dan Mangan
New York Post
February 29, 2008
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02292008/news/regionalnews/cardinal_sin__10g_for_furniture_99795.htm
A Bronx Catholic HS principal who resigned last week amid allegations of inappropriate photos on his work computer used $10,000 from a charity set up to aid the academy to buy furniture for his own apartment, The Post has learned.
Christopher Keogan, the ousted principal of Cardinal Hayes HS, was given the money at about the same time that he was moving out of his residence on the school campus, several sources said.
Keogan was listed as a director of the nonprofit charitable foundation the Cardinal and Gold Fund Inc. at the time the group is said to have authorized the payout.
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| KEOGAN Got charity funds. |
"There was a $10,000 payment. It did go to Keogan . . . It was for furniture," said a source familiar with the disbursement, which was made in 2004 or 2005, when Keogan was moving out of a room at Cardinal Hayes.
The Cardinal and Gold Fund's stated purpose is to support other tax-exempt organizations "by promoting the education of underprivileged youth at Cardinal Hayes HS by covering budgetary shortfalls," according to a public record filing by the fund.
Directors of the multimillion-dollar fund include John Duffy, chairman and CEO of the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods financial-services firm.
Neither Duffy nor fund Chairman Albert Salvatico could be reached for comment. Keogan's lawyer refused to comment, as did the New York Archdiocese, which runs Cardinal Hayes.
The Rev. Bob Hoatson, a priest who last year wrote Keogan a scathing letter accusing him of a slew of misconduct at the school, yesterday blasted the fund for the payment to Keogan.
"I think it's absurd that the Cardinal and Gold Fund would give the man $10,000 when they're taking it from kids who need it most," said Hoatson, who had mentioned the payment in his letter, which was copied to the archdiocese and the Bronx District Attorney's Office.
"They could have given two kids scholarships to Cardinal Hayes with that money."
The archdiocese has refused to say why the 51-year-old Keogan resigned late last week. But a source has told The Post he had quit after inappropriate images were found on his work computer at Hayes.
Keogan is still considered a member of the Christian Brothers religious order, but he stopped being called "brother" in recent years.
Contact: dan.mangan@nypost.com
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