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	Update: Ex-manager of Linden Cemetery Admits Taking Money Intended for Plots, Crypts Home News Tribune February 5, 2009 http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090205/CRIME/90205036 UNION COUNTY —The former manager of a Linden cemetery pleaded guilty to theft yesterday, admitting he pocketed more than $37,000 in payments for cemetery services, Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said Thursday. Investigators found that Joseph Lubas, 59, stole checks written for crypts, burial plots and a rental property on the grounds of Mount Calvary Cemetery between March 2005 and August 2007, Romankow said in a news release. An investigation into the thefts started after the Archdiocese of Newark, which owns the East Edgar Road cemetery, discovered accounting irregularities during a routine audit of parish operations, said Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the archdiocese. He said the services were being provided as they were paid for, but that the payments were being diverted from the cemetery's operations budget. Once the archdiocese contacted authorities, Linden police Detective Mark Casey reached the victims, who said the checks they wrote were intended for the cemetery and not Lubas, assistant prosecutor Ann Rubin said. Payments from about a dozen clients were diverted. "Once we became aware of the irregularities, we just let the authorities go with it," Goodness said. Lubas was fired by the archdiocese on Oct. 31, 2007. The Elizabeth man was charged last September after an investigation by Romankow's office, Linden police and the archdiocese. Romankow said the Elizabeth man will be sentenced to probation on March 20, provided he makes full repayment to cemetery, under a plea deal with the prosecutor's office.
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