OHIO
The Plain Dealer
By Rachel Dissell, The Plain Dealer
on October 30, 2013
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A judge sentenced the former pastor of St. Helena Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church to two years in prison for siphoning money from parish coffers and stealing from an elderly churchgoer.
Andre Matthews, 54, had already pleaded guilty to charges that he stole $176,000 from the church and more than $100,000 from an 89-year-old woman.
Matthews, a longtime pastor at St. Helena on Cleveland’s West Side, was suspended from his duties as a priest on July 18, which bars him from celebrating sacraments or representing himself as a priest.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle, after hearing from the elderly victim, Aurelia Papp, and a man representing parishioners, who packed the courtroom, said, “I know people want a little more blood out of this, but I can’t do it.”
McMonagle also ordered Matthews to pay restitution to the victims in the case.
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