MASSACHUSETTS
The Patriot Ledger
By Andy Tomolonis
The Standard-Times
FALL RIVER – Radoslaw Czerkawski, a Polish national awaiting trial for animal cruelty charges in Quincy’s Puppy Doe case, was convicted Tuesday on a litany of larceny-by-check charges in a separate New Bedford case and sentenced to serve three to five years in state prison.
Czerkawski, 35, pleaded guilty to eight counts of larceny by check over $250 stemming from the theft of money from St. Lawrence Parish in New Bedford, where Czerkawski had stayed for several months in 2012. He is already serving a three-to-five-year sentence on an embezzlement conviction out of Quincy.
During a sentencing hearing in Fall River Superior Court – held immediately after the court accepted Czerkawski’s guilty plea – Assistant District Attorney Brian Griffin argued that based on Czerkawski’s history of convictions, he should serve three to five years in prison. Czerkawski requested a one-year sentence at the county House of Correction. Judge Raffia Yessayan imposed the prosecution’s full sentence after hearing arguments from both sides.
In 2012, Czerkawski told officials with the Diocese of Fall River that he wanted to become a priest, according to a statement from the office of Bristol District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III. The diocese assigned him to the St. Lawrence Parish in New Bedford, knowing that the head pastor speaks Polish and the church has a large number of Polish congregants. Czerkawski, a Polish national, was assigned to the church to explore the seriousness of his calling to become a priest, according to Quinn’s statement.
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