New York Post
Last Updated: 5:52 AM, July 7, 2010
Posted: 2:33 AM, July 7, 2010
By JOE MOLLICA in Waterbury, Conn., and DAN MANGAN in New York
A Catholic priest stole $1.3 million from his Waterbury, Conn., parish to finance a gay old time in New York, authorities charged yesterday.
The Rev. Kevin Gray allegedly blew the money he looted from his financially struggling parish over seven years on male escorts, rooms at hotels, including the Waldorf, designer clothes, trendy restaurants and tuition for several young studs.
Gray, 64, regularly shacked up in an Upper East Side apartment that he rented for a 35-year-old man, court documents charge.
The priest not only paid for the apartment, but also the Harvard tuition for his male friend, authorities said.
(Picture: COLLARED: The Rev. Kevin Gray is arraigned yesterday on charges of looting big bucks from parishioners.”)
Steven Valenti/Republican-American)Gray told that man for years he was a Catholic Charities lawyer and was suffering from colon cancer — both of which he later admitted were lies, cops said.
He “was leading a double life,” said Waterbury Police Capt. Christopher Corbett. “People are shocked by this news . . . He was a well-respected priest.”
Gray was ordered held in lieu of $750,000 bond yesterday after appearing in Waterbury Superior Court. His alleged scam was exposed by a recent Hartford Archdiocese financial review of his Sacred Heart Parish, whose overwhelmingly Hispanic congregation he had led since 2003.
Church officials notified cops, whose arrest warrant for Gray tells a tawdry tale of his lust for men and the Big Apple high life.
From 2003 until this past March, that warrant said, Gray charged more than $205,000 to restaurants, including Tavern on the Green, L’Absinthe, Brunelli and Giovanni.
He dropped more than a $130,000 on hotels, often on the same days he was hiring escorts, Corbett said.
And Gray allegedly spent more than $80,000 on expensive clothes.
The priest’s pricey tastes were partially subsidized by $221,000 a cellphone company paid to install a transmitter in his church’s steeple, the court papers charge. He allegedly hid the windfall from his archdiocesan bosses, who had banned such deals.
In a June 10 interview with Waterbury cops in the York Avenue apartment he was renting, Gray said “he had grown to hate being a priest and was upset with the archdiocese for the assignments they had given him over the years,” the warrant said.
He was particularly angry about being transferred in 2001 to New Hartford while his mom was dying in New Haven, and said he began stealing from Sacred Heart in 2003 “because he felt that the church owed it to him,” the warrant said.
“Mr. Gray stated that he would order male escorts from Campus Escorts in New York,” the warrant said. “Mr. Gray stated that he is gay and has a problem with the church’s position on homosexuality.”
Gray has been suspended from acting publicly as a priest.
The Ten Commandments
The Rev. Kevin Gray allegedly stole money his poor parishioners in Waterbury, Conn., donated to the collection plate each Sunday over seven years to fund his homosexual lifestyle in New York City, violating his priestly vow of celibacy and fidelity to Jesus Christ.
VIOLATED:
III. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
VI. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
VII. Thou shalt not steal.
VIII. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
IX. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.
X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s property.
NOT VIOLATED:
I. I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.
II. Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain.
IV. Honor thy father and mother.
V. Thou shalt not kill.
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Catholic priest Kevin Gray stole $1M and spent it on male escorts: police
New York Daily News
Wednesday, July 7th 2010, 4:00 AM
(Picture: Waterbury PD/AP Rev. Kevin Gray)
A disgruntled Catholic priest was charged Tuesday with raiding church coffers to finance a double life befitting a mogul – and to pay for male escorts.
The Rev. Kevin Gray, former pastor at Sacred Heart in Waterbury, Conn., was charged with first-degree larceny, which carries up to 20 years in prison.
He allegedly stole $1.3 million over seven years and spent some of the cash on designer duds and luxury Manhattan hotels and restaurants.
Gray, 64, stayed at the W Hotel and the Waldorf-Astoria, ate at Tavern on the Green and bought Armani and Brooks Brothers suits, cell phones and laptops, said Waterbury police Capt. Christopher Corbett.
He opened credit card accounts for two men he had met – one at a male strip club and another through a male escort service, according to court papers.
One of them racked up $67,000 in charges – including $5,410 for tuition at LaGuardia Community College in Queens. The other charged almost $50,000 to the card, including Louis Vuitton merchandise and $9,000 in Crunch gym fees.
A third man he met in Central Park said Gray paid for his classes at Harvard, piano lessons and veterinarian bills – claiming he was a lawyer who had won big cases.
“The life he was leading in New York City was much different than the life he was leading in Waterbury as a priest,” Corbett said.
“He’s certainly an example of someone who was leading a double life.”
A police affidavit says Gray admitted he swiped about $1 million and told investigators did it because he hated being a priest and got lousy assignments from the Archdiocese of Hartford.
He was Sacred Heart’s pastor from January 2003 until April 15, when he was granted a medical leave.
He told the congregation he was battling cancer, but detectives have determined that was a lie.
_______________________
Cops: Conn. Priest Stole $1M From Church For Male Escorts
wpix.com /news/wpix-priest-spent-church-money-on-escorts,0,3203704.story
WPIX
1:53 PM EDT, July 6, 2010
By ANDREW RAMOS
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WPIX) A Roman Catholic priest was arrested and charged Tuesday, after he stole over $1 million from church funds to pay for a number of personal expenses including male escorts, authorities said.
According to Waterbury Police, Kevin Gray, 64, is charged with first degree larceny after an investigation revealed he pilfered $1.3 million in church money over a course of seven years while serving as pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Waterbury.
An investigation was launched into Gray’s misuse of church funds after the Hartford Archdiocese alerted police, suspecting the former pastor took the money for personal use.
Police say a financial review of records found that Gray spent the money on stays at luxury hotels, dining in lavish restaurants, clothing, in addition to the male escorts.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the world’s largest support group for clergy abuse victims, lashed out against the accused priest, urging those who may have more information about Gray’s alleged wrongdoings to come forward.
“Let’s hope Fr. Gray’s crimes only involved consenting adults,” Outreach Director of SNAP Barbara Dorris said in a statement to PIX 11 News. “We hope that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered from his misdeeds will call police immediately, so that the truth might be fully revealed and that both the cleric and anyone who ignored or enabled his wrongdoing will be punished.”
Gray, who served at Sacred Heart’s pastor from January 2003 to April 2010, was arraigned in Waterbury Superior Court Tuesday.
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