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Police: Priest used parish money for hotels, escorts

By The Hartford (Conn.) Courant

Published: July 10. 2010 4:00AM PST

WATERBURY, Conn. — A Roman Catholic priest who stole $1.3 million from the Sacred Heart parish over seven years said he “had grown to hate being a priest” because the archdiocese had given him the “worst church assignments” where he would “have to fix problems made by the previous priests,” according to a police affidavit.

The Rev. Kevin Gray, 64, was charged with first-degree larceny. Police said he used church funds to pay for hotels, restaurant meals, clothing and male escorts. Gray turned himself in to authorities Tuesday morning and was to be arraigned in Waterbury Superior Court.

Waterbury police launched an investigation after the archdiocese came to them May 27 and said it had uncovered unauthorized payments from church funds to accounts held by Gray and other suspicious transactions, according to the affidavit.

Gray wrote checks to himself, paid off his American Express bills, allowed two men to have credit cards in their names on his account and paid for various other expenses — including tuition to Harvard and rent in New York City for a man he met in Central Park — using the church’s Webster Bank account, the document states.

 

 

 

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