CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer
By Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer
on June 24, 2013
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A longtime priest at St. Helena Church on Cleveland’s West Side has pleaded guilty to stealing $176,000 from the Romanian Catholic institution, a prosecutor said.
The Rev. Andre Matthews, 54, used some of the money to pay credit card bills, buy cars and pay tuition for a family member to attend Cleveland State University, according to Assistant County Prosecutor James Gutierrez.
Gutierrez said some of the money Matthews stole was raised through church-sponsored bingo.
The West 65th Street church is one of several Romanian Catholic churches in Northeast Ohio and has 80 to100 families as members, said the Rev. Ovidiu Marginean, chancellor at the Romanian Catholic Diocese of Canton. Services are primarily conducted in Romanian.
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