Friday, January 28, 2011

Sex offender also stole church funds

From the Queens Gazette:

A convicted child sex offender banned from an afterschool program at St. Mel’s Catholic School in Whitestone is facing new charges that he swiped a church checkbook and cashed checks totaling more than $7,000, authorities said.

Joseph Denice, 24, a registered N.Y. State Sex Offender, was removed from St. Mel’s after parents and lawmakers in Eastern Queens discovered he was working with young children at an afterschool program at the school.

Shortly after his dismissal, church officials received a phone call from a CapitalOne Bank branch advising them that a checking account was overdrawn.

According to a criminal complaint filed by the Queens District Attorney’s office, Denice admitted to investigators that he found checks on a desk in the church Religious Education Office in December and signed several over to an account held by his parents.

Bank officials said Denice wrote checks through the month of December totaling $7,707, the complaint states. Following his arrest last week, Denice said his mother had no knowledge of the scam and she believed she was depositing Denice’s paychecks, the complaint states.

Denice, a Level 1 N.Y. State Sex Offender, is facing grand larceny and related charges for the theft of church funds.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maspeth Mom says....

Obviously the church managment has failed on multiple levels. Another proud moment for the Catholic church!

They ought to fire the individual who oversees that office.

I took the Virtus program - they wanted my social secutiry # - I refused to give it them for my own financial security reasons. They gave me my certificate anyway.

Anonymous said...

Priest who are sexual offenders rarely do jail time, I'll be surprised if he gets any. I'm sure he has a lot of church secrets to gets him a pass.

Anonymous said...

This is par for the course at St. Mel. The pastor, Father Turczany, hired a janitor and gave him a church owned house to live in. The man then shot himself in the leg while playing with an illegal gun.
A couple of weeks later the janitor's half-brother robbed the church during Christmas mass. Fr. Turczany had, ahem, left the safe open and unattended.
Fr. Turczany allowed cell phone towers to be placed on the grammar school roof. Parents were outraged. It took him several years to remove them.
Fr. Turczany would not allow kindergartners to have their graduation in the church saying it was not a place for that. He made then have it in the school cafeteria. Several months later he held a concert in the church featuring show tunes.
Fr. Turczany constantly complains about a lack of donations to the church but purchased an organ for over $70,000. He sold the rectory and re-habbed the convent to the tune of over $1 million while complaining about the church going broke.
Father Turczany should resign. He is a disgrace and embarrassment.

cherokeesista said...

All sex offenders should be Executed ASAP !! There is no cure for them ;-( You can Never give back to a child what those sick bastards have taken ;-(

Anonymous said...

At Stans Stans Church in Maspeth In the past 15 years have had alledged child molester priest - who they moved on to a parish in Brooklyn, and one potential child molester who they kicked out of the Sports Association (just in the nick of time). Child molesters are every where - If my kid came home and told me someone molested him - I would take care of it myself...

Anonymous said...

Ah...just nail him on a cross!

ANON 2 said...

You forgot about the 2 cars Fr. TURKS has. He stood at mass one sunday afternoon at the time slot where it's mostly italian immigrants and said that this time slot was the worst givers.
UNREAL.

Anonymous said...

Anon #2 This person is not a priest - he is a sociapath that stole from the church, molested young boys, forged documents, made believe he was a judge and more - he is in Ryker's-hopefully for a long time and getting what he deserves -nailing him to the cross is too good for him.

Anonymous said...

Once again, why would these schools or World of Discovery Day Camp hire someone who molests children, is a sex offender, and steals money. What a scam artist. They really need to look into the people they hire!

Anonymous said...

get your facts straight, he worked for World of Discovery before any of this so don' try to bad talk them
In fact, I know him. I don't know what has gotten into him lately. But don't say that World Of Discovery knew about this because they didn't!

Anonymous said...

I was wondering about where our new pastor came from and found this disturbing Blog. Fr.Turczany was moved to St. Mark in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn, the First thing he does is replace The churches existing crucifix which was chosen by St. Mark's previous pastor Fr. Grimaldi. The new crucifix cost $16,000 he did this without consulting the parish. Turczany is claiming parishioners approached him saying it was needed,he sure seems indifferent to many other requests. At his previous post Turczany hired a trigger happy handy man and a child molester had cell phone towers installed on church property is up to his old tricks. Saint Mark has already seen costly renovations, beloved staff members replaced, Money decisions that serve Turczany's singular vision rather than the greater good. Fr. Turczany was forced out of his last parish. The church moves its problems around. I hope the decisions he makes regarding hiring sex offender's and people who shoot themselves on church property are behind him. But is hope really enough here. Why keep this priest in a position of power he may continue to tarnish the church which is in need of redemption and renewed confidence in it's leadership.

Post a Comment