Clevelanders Sue Columbus Diocese's Financial Chief
Lawsuit Says Officer and Two Others Stole More than $1 Million

By Dennis M. Mahoney
Columbus Dispatch
June 14, 2005

An attorney has sued the chief financial officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus, seeking restitution of money that he says was stolen from the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

Joseph Smith, hired last year to oversee the Columbus Diocese's finances, and two others are accused in the lawsuit filed by Cleveland attorney Santiago Feliciano of defrauding the Cleveland Diocese of more than $1 million.

The lawsuit was filed in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court yesterday on behalf of 37 Cleveland parishioners.

Among others named in the suit are Cleveland Bishop Anthony Pilla; Thomas Kelley, director of the Cleveland Diocese's cemetery association; and Anton Zgoznik, the diocese's assistant treasurer. Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro is named as the state's overseer of tax-exempt entities such as the Cleveland Diocese.

Smith quit the Cleveland Diocese in February 2004 after being accused of accepting about $750,000 from an accounting firm that was hired to work for the diocese. He was hired by the Columbus Diocese in August.

The Cleveland Diocese has said Smith is under investigation by federal authorities. Special Agent Robert Hawk, of the Cleveland FBI office, would neither confirm nor deny such an investigation.

Feliciano, who was the top lawyer for the Cleveland Diocese for 22 years, said he has copies of more than $1 million in checks that Smith, Kelley and Zgoznik allegedly received.

The suit demands that the three repay the money. It also seeks an audit of diocesan finances to see whether other money came up missing during the 10 years that Smith worked for the diocese.

Smith said he had not seen the lawsuit and had no comment yesterday.

Robert Tayek, spokesman for the Cleveland Diocese, also had no comment.

Feliciano said he quit the Cleveland Diocese in 2002 because of how the diocese was handling clergy sex-abuse cases and its finances.

Smith was hired by former Columbus Bishop James A. Griffin. At the time, the Cleveland Diocese said Griffin had been told that Smith was under investigation. They said Columbus did not ask for an employment recommendation.

But Griffin said that he had spoken to Pilla about Smith and that a Cleveland auxiliary bishop had strongly recommended Smith for the job.

dmahoney@dispatch.com