WISCONSIN
Urban Milwaukee
By Michael Zahn – Feb 6th, 2015
Father James Dokos Jr., accused of stealing more than $100,000 from a trust fund, offered an unusual defense: that he was protected by the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion — an argument made by his trio of lawyers, including high-profile attorney Frank Gimbel.
Sorry, said Circuit Judge M. Joseph Donald in a ruling yesterday: “The United States Supreme Court has previously observed that no person may ‘under the cloak of religion . . . commit frauds upon the public.’” So Asst. District Atty. David Feiss can go ahead and prosecute the priest.
Dokos Jr. had served since 1990 and until recently at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa. The building is easily the best-known Greek Orthodox structure in this area, and one of the best-known Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings in the state. Two longtime parish members, the late Ervin and Margaret Franczak, had established a trust totaling more than $1.2 million which was intended for the mortgage and maintenance of the parish’s James W. Pihos Cultural Center, next to the church at 9400 W. Congress St.
But the complaint against Dokos says that from August 2008 through October 2012, he spent more than $110,000 — writing checks outside the terms of the trust, as Fox 6 has reported.
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