Roxbury Pastor Gets 5 Years in Prison, Daily Record, July 29, 2011

Roxbury Pastor Gets 5 Years in Prison

Daily Record
July 29, 2011

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20110729/NJNEWS/307290029/Roxbury-priest-gets-prison-time-stealing-200-000-from-his-parish?odyssey=nav|head

Morristown., July 29, 2011--Rev. Joseph Davis sentenced in Morris County Superior Court for stealing at least $200,000 while pastor of St. Therese R.C. Church in Roxbury._BOB KARP/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / Staff Photo/staff photo

Suicidal and recovering from alcohol abuse, the former pastor of St. Therese Roman Catholic Church in Succasunna was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for stealing $200,000 from the parish.

After the Rev. Joseph Davis, now 65, fell under suspicion for theft last year, he tried to commit suicide and was in a coma for seven days. He has spent the past 16 months undergoing treatment for depression and suicidal thoughts at a mental health facility in Pennsylvania that is run by the Catholic church.

Davis, pastor of St. Therese for 24 years and a priest for 39 years, pleaded guilty in May in state Superior Court, Morristown, to stealing $200,000 from the Roxbury parish over a 20-year period, though authorities believe the theft is larger.

Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Foy said that Davis admitted to pocketing $300 a week from collections taken at services. This amount alone, over a 20-year period, is $312,000 and doesn’t include money that Davis also acknowledged taking from votive candle contributions and the Rosary Society, authorities said.

“Every Sunday when the collection was taken he took his share,” Foy said.

Some 20 people, including representatives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, supporters and family members, attended the sentencing at which Davis apologized in a quiet voice and said he hopes to one day help with church ministries.

“I did betray the trust. I admit that and I’m sorry for that,” Davis said. “I’m looking forward to accomplishing this element of my life so in the future I can return to active ministry.”

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Garrigan unsuccessfully tried to persuade Superior Court Judge David Ironson to sentence Davis to probation or less time than sought under his five-year plea agreement with the prosecutor’s office.

Garrigan asked the judge to find that prison would be a “serious injustice” for the cleric. But the judge, citing case law, concluded that the priest who admitted committing a second-degree crime did not fall into the category of being an “idiosyncratic” defendant for whom prison would be an injustice.

Under the five-year term, Davis will be eligible for parole after serving one year and five days, and prison is equipped to handle his mental health and physical ailments, the judge said.

“This was the hard-earned money of individuals, and it was not used for its intended purpose,” Ironson said. “This deceit, theft, cannot be tolerated.”

The judge noted that Davis supplemented his parish salary through the thefts and was able to take expensive trips every August and long weekend getaways to New York City.

By law in New Jersey, any theft over $75,000 is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Davis was offered a plea bargain that called for the minimum period of time behind bars, five years.

Davis formally resigned as pastor of the 2,800-family church on July 19, 2010, while the investigation into the thefts was under way.

The Diocese of Paterson, through spokesman Richard A. Sokerka, released a statement calling Davis’ plea and sentencing Davis “a sad time” for the diocese and St. Therese parish.

“A priest, especially a pastor, is given a high position of trust. When that trust is betrayed, everyone is hurt. This betrayal also unfairly causes all pastors to be suspect in the eyes of many of their people. We hope that the stringent policies for the handling of money, now in place in all parishes throughout the diocese, will prevent such crimes from ever happening again,” the statement said.