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	Long Hill Priest Sentenced on Tax Evasion Charges The Mycentraljersey April 27, 2011 http://www.kerknieuws.nl/nieuws.asp?oId=20413 LONG HILL — Monsignor Patrick Brown, longtime pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic church, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to five months in jail and five months of home confinement with electronic monitoring on a tax evasion charge in connection with allegations he stole nearly $64,000 from the church to buy relatives gifts, pay credit card bills and fund trips to Ireland, Hawaii and Colorado. Brown, a 59-year-old resident of the Stirling section who also has a residence in Budd Lake, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Newark. He acknowledged $63,706 in thefts between 2004 and June 2009, and specifically admitted that for 2005 he misreported his income as only a $30,930 salary from the church, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. When he pleaded guilty, Brown resigned as pastor of St. Vincent de Paul, a parish of 1,385 families that he had served since July 1992. Paul J. Fishman, U.S. attorney for New Jersey, stated in a news release that just three days after Brown started leading the Long Hill parish, he opened an account with Chemical Bank that took in parish money, including funds paid by parishioners and others for cemetery plots and related funeral expenses. He kept this account open until October 2007 and hid it from both the parish and the diocese while he used it to fund personal expenditures and buy gifts for his mother and siblings and take pleasure trips to Hawaii, Colorado and Ireland, Fishman said. He later closed this account and opened an account with Sovereign Bank, which was funded in part with church donations. Again, the hidden fund was used to pay for work done on Brown's home in Budd Lake and to fund a trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, Fishman said in a statement. Authorities said that an investigation into Brown's finances began in the summer of 2009.
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