Priest gets prison for $500G theft from archdiocese

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Delco Daily Times

January 3, 2018

PHILADELPHIA >> The suspended rector at the Villa St. Joseph retirement home in Darby Borough, who in May pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud for diverting more than $500,000 intended for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to his personal account, was back in federal court Wednesday for sentencing.

The Rev. Msgr. William A. Dombrow, 78, was sentenced to serve eight months in jail on each of the four counts to run concurrently, followed by three years supervised release on each of the four counts, also to run concurrently but consecutive to incarceration, defense attorney Steven Pacillio said.

The sentencing proceeding before U.S. District Court Judge Gerald J. Pappert lasted nearly three hours. Pacillio said the judge allowed his client, who remains in “good standing” with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and continues to reside at Villa St. Joseph, to self-surrender on Feb. 20.

Pacillio described Dombrow as totally accepting of his responsibility, since day one.

“He has a strong faith and he knows his fate is ultimately in God’s hands,” Pacillio said. “He’s never expressed even once any minimization or any attempt at ducking responsibility.”

Dombrow was on administrative leave when he was arrested in April for stealing $535,258 between December 2007 and May 2016. He was specifically charged with four separate instances of illegal transfers between 2013 and 2016 for sums ranging between $10,000 and $25,000.

The villa provides licensed nursing care and housing for retired and infirm priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which had contracted with Catholic Human Services to provide management and accounting services at the home, according to a criminal information document filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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