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	Jury Deliberating Ex-Priest's Fate Richmond Times-Dispatch October 31, 2008 http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-10-30-0206.html The case against Rodis, a Filipino native who served as pastor of two churches in Louisa, went to the jury about 5:30 p.m. on the second day of his trial. Yesterday, 12 jurors and two alternates were chosen in Louisa Circuit Court to hear evidence in the case. Rodis is accused of stealing money donated to both of the churches he led. Rodis faces 10 felony theft counts accusing him of diverting money intended for Immaculate Conception and St. Jude Catholic churches. Authorities believe he stole as much as $1 million from the two parishes as he solicited money for major capital campaigns. He retired as pastor of both churches in May 2006 for health reasons. A suspicious donation deposit later that year led to an investigation and the embezzlement case against him. The probe revealed that Rodis had been living with a wife and children near Fredericksburg while leading the two churches from 1993 until his retirement, flouting centuries-old Catholic rules prohibiting priests from having sex or marrying. Among a list of questions lawyers asked nearly 100 potential jurors yesterday was whether evidence that Rodis broke Catholic rules might prevent them from judging the criminal charges against him fairly. Rodis, is serving a five-year federal prison term for mail fraud, money laundering and wire fraud. Evidence in the federal case, which concluded against him this year and was based on the same incidents, indicated that he sent money home to his native Philippines, where family members bought property. Rodis faces a maximum 200-year prison term if convicted of all charges in state court. Former Catholic priest Rodney L. Rodis, already serving a federal prison term, is waiting this evening to see whether a Louisa County jury convicts him of state embezzlement charges.
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