Ex-priest Who Stole from Parish Must Repay $425k, Pa. Court Says

By Matt Miller
The PennLive
November 11, 2014

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/11/ex-priest_who_stole_from_paris.html

A Pennsylvania court has refused to overturn a $425,000 restitution order against a former Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to stealing from his own parish to finance a lavish lifestyle.

Richard E. Nachajski, who led the Saint Anthony of Padua parish in Reading for about 15 years, had argued on appeal that he wasn't given a chance to argue that he actually had stolen far less from his former congregation.

The Pennsylvania Judicial Center

The state Superior Court in a recent ruling turned aside Nachajski's argument that his original lawyer was ineffective, however, and so concluded that his restitution argument was void.

Berks County Judge Scott D. Keller sentenced Nachajski, now 68, to 2 to 7 years in state prison in September 2012 after the ex-priest pleaded guilty to a theft charge.

Investigators said Nachajski diverted parish money from 1998 to 2008 to his own purposes, including to pay for vacations and finance a time share in Mexico. The theft was uncovered in an audit conducted by the Diocese of Allentown and a probe by the Berks County District Attorney's Office conducted after Nachajski took a leave of absence from the parish in 2009.

He subsequently left the priesthood and married.

In his failed appeal to the Superior Court, Nachajski argued that the $425,000 restitution was set at his sentencing hearing and that he never had a chance to argue before a judge that the amount should have been lower. He contended that he could show at least half of that amount was spent for legitimate parish purposes.

Judge Jack A. Panella wrote in the state court's opinion that Judge Keller "ably and methodically" evaluated Nachajski's initial appeal on the restitution issue and had rightly denied it. Nachajski simply didn't show that the attorney who represented him in his plea deal wasn't effective, Panella concluded.

Judge Keller wrote in his ruling denying the appeal that Nachajski was unable to provide any solid proof for his claims that the restitution was too high.

The defense attorney "pursued a reasonable path" by choosing not to seek a court hearing on the restitution, Keller concluded. Nachajski had no deal on a sentence when he pleaded guilty, and his lawyer feared a restitution hearing, with no real evidence on the defense side, could have impaired his strategy of trying to minimize the prison sentence Nachjaski would receive, the county judge noted.

Nachajski was paroled from state prison in March, court records show. They also indicate that, to date, he has paid $267 of his restitution.

mmiller@pennlive.com