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	Joseph Smith Accused of Taking $785,000 from Cleveland Diocese Associated Press, carried in The Chronicle-Telegram May 15, 2008 http://www.chroniclet.com/2008/05/15/prosecutor-avon-lake-man-took-kickbacks/ CLEVELAND — The former top-ranking layman in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland was portrayed by a prosecutor on Wednesday as a manipulator who got $785,000 in kickbacks, but his lawyer said any payments were legal and part of a pattern of secret church finances. Joseph H. Smith, 51, of Avon Lake, who sat through last year's trial when a co-defendant was convicted of similar charges, took notes and watched closely as prosecutor John Siegel outlined the government's case against him in U.S. District Court. Siegel described the defendant as "a very skilled" chief diocesan financial officer who felt underpaid. So Smith orchestrated a $250,000, five-year secret pay raise and took kickbacks from his co-defendant, an outside accountant handling church finances, Siegel said. The alleged scheme put the eight-county northeast Ohio diocese of 766,000 Catholics at risk of overpaying for accounting services, Siegel told the jury. The diocese said it was unaware of any financial wrongdoing and said it was a victim in the alleged scheme. Smith's attorney, Philip Kushner, said the payments to Smith weren't kickbacks but an attempt by Smith's boss, the Rev. John Wright, to keep Smith from quitting for a better-paying job. "Father Wright wanted it kept secret. It was kept secret," Kushner said. He told jurors to understand that the church encourages obedience to higher-ups. "Mr. Smith didn't take any kickbacks," Kushner said. "He didn't receive anything he wasn't authorized to receive." The defense for co-defendant Anton Zgoznik of Kirtland Hills, a former church accountant who later did accounting for the diocese as an outside contractor, also emphasized obedience to higher church authority at his trial. He was convicted in October of conspiracy and 14 other charges and faces up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing June 18. Smith was the Cleveland diocese's highest-ranking lay person until 2004, when irregularities in church finances were disclosed by an anonymous letter to a lay board that oversees church finances. Smith was close to Bishop Anthony Pilla, now retired, who testified in Zgoznik's trial and likely will be called in Smith's as well. Zgoznik and Smith have maintained that Pilla knew of the payments. Pilla testified at Zgoznik's trial that he had complete trust in Smith.
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