NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com
BY RICHARD COWEN
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
The former pastor of a Clifton Ukrainian Orthodox church who was charged this week with choking a baby in a Walmart store in Kansas was told to leave the church last year because of a drinking problem, the parish council vice president said Friday.
Oleh Zhownirovych had led the Ukrainian Orthodox Holy Ascension Cathedral for 15 years, and had been married with two children. But his wife and children eventually left him, and last year, the church severed ties with him because of his drinking, said Walter Mohuchy, vice president of the Holy Ascension church council.
“We essentially asked him to leave because he was battling alcoholism,” Mohuchy said. “He knew people in Florida, and we thought he was there to get himself well. But Kansas? How did he end up there?”
Zhownirovych, 54, is now being held in the Johnson County Jail on $100,000 bail, charged with aggravated battery. He was arrested around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday following a bizarre incident at a Walmart in Overland Park, which is about 15 miles southwest of Kansas City.
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