Word of God Priest Charged with Stealing More Than $143k from Parish, The Patch, September 8, 2011

Word of God Priest Charged with Stealing More Than $143k from Parish

The Patch
September 8, 2011

http://foresthills-regentsquare.patch.com/articles/word-of-god-priest-charged-with-stealing-more-than-143k-from-parish

The former pastor of Swissvale’s Word of God Church, Fr. Francis Drabiska, surrendered himself to police this morning and was arraigned before District Judge Ross Cioppa for stealing more than $143,000 from the parish.

The district attorney’s office Thursday charged Drabiska with theft by unlawful taking. He was released on a non-monetary bond and a hearing date is still being determined.

The police criminal complaint states that in November 2010, detectives interviewed an auditor for the diocese, James Stierheim, who turned over documents that revealed Drabiska had been stealing money from the church since 1999.

“Stierheim explained that in their routine course of audits of the various diocesan parishes, they found that cash funds were not accounted for at Word of God parish,” the criminal complaint states. “Over the years, various attempts to rectify the situation were implemented, including procedures for collecting and counting offering money and implementing the use of tamper-proof money bags.”

In 2005, Word of God parish became a major concern to Steirheim because he noticed a decline in check-to-cash percentages and a decline in the offertory “loose cash.”

In January 2006, tamper-proof money bags were implemented at the church, the complaint states. In 2007, an usher reported that Drabiska had stopped using the bags.

Parish bookkeeper Ann Soltis told Stierheim that contrary to standard procedures, she and Drabiska organized the collection proceeds for the money counters by opening the bags and sorting through the collection, according to the complaint.

In January 2011, Drabiska's personal checking account records were obtained through a search warrant from Citizens Bank that revealed he had made 33 cash deposits into the account ranging from $50 to $580 between January 2005 and Oct. 5, 2009, totaling $7,692.

That search warrant also revealed that Drabiska had several personal charge accounts at Sears, Citicorp, Macy's and American Express.

Stierheim told detectives that Drabiska has had issues with the diocese in the past, and had been warned in 1998 through a letter that told him he had to reduce his spending by using the parish cook instead of expensive restaurants, and that all rectory table and household expenses were to be paid through the parish account, according to the complaint.