NEW JERSEY
The Record
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
MIDLAND PARK — The Newark Archdiocese has declined to take any action concerning a Midland Park priest who is under investigation for allegedly accepting more than $250,000 in cash, checks and gifts from elderly members of an Essex County parish where he worked last year.
Jim Goodness, an archdiocese spokesman, called the investigation by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office a “personal issue” for the Rev. Alex Orozco to deal with, because neither the archdiocese nor any of its parishes were harmed.
No charges have been filed in the case. Orozco, 37, is being investigated on claims he took large sums of money from wealthy elderly women when he was assigned to St. Rose of Lima Church in Short Hills. He used their cash and checks to buy cars, houses, plane tickets to his native Colombia and a big-screen TV among other items, according to an article first published by NJ Advance Media. In one case, when a woman — whom he called his “grandma” — asked for receipts for the purchases, Orozco failed to produce them, the report said.
Orozco did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. He told NJ Advance Media in an interview that he made mistakes in his solicitations but that parishioners “want to embrace me.”
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