Judge Calls Priest Liar; Sends Him to Prison for 900,000 Theft, Joseph A Slobodzian, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 22, 2009

Judge Calls Priest Liar; Sends Him to Prison for $900,000 Theft

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Philadelphia Inquirer
May 22, 2009

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/45846232.html?cmpid=15585797

Rev. Charles Newman (File)

The Franciscan friar who once led Philadelphia's largest Roman Catholic high school was sentenced this morning to three to six years in prison for his guilty plea to stealing $900,000 from the school - part of it "hush money" for a former student he allegedly molested.

The Rev. Charles Newman, 58, apologized to the Archdiocese and the Archbishop Ryan High School community but gave no real explanation for the theft.

Newman was immediately taken into custody to begin his sentence.

Common Pleas Court Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi told Newman she believed he was lying and compared his statements to those of a "child who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar."

"The bottom line is this was self grafication. That's all I can see," the judge added.

Newman, who had been living in a Franciscan retirement home in Wisconsin, pleaded guilty in March to forgery and theft charges.

He was at teacher and then principal Archbishop Ryan for 22 years before becoming president in 2002. He was fired a year later after Archdiocesan auditors discovered misappropriated funds.

Newman had been accused civilly of offering $54,000 of the stolen funds to a former student, Arthur Baselice III, a 1996 Ryan graduate who contended the friar repeated sexually abused him and introduced him to illegal and addictive drugs during his junior and senior years at the Northeast Philadelphia school.

Newman was never prosecuted because the charges became public after the statute of limitations for such cases had expired.

Baselice died of a drug overdose on Nov. 30, 2006 at age 28.

Newman's remarks in court infuriated Baselice's family, who blamed Newman for his death. At one point Elaine Baselice, Arthur Baselice's mother, uttered a vulgarity and walked out in tears.

In court hise father, Arthur Baselice Jr., his voice shaking, called Newman a "vicious predator and an ambassador of the devil."

"Sick, detestable . . . disgusting, the words are inadequate," Baselice added.