Roman Catholic Priest Rev. Kevin J. Gray was charged with first-degree larceny for stealing $1.3 million to pay for "hotels, restaurant meals, clothing and male escorts." Oh and also rent on a NYC apartment and the Harvard tuition for a man he met in Central Park. According to the Hartford Courant, the Waterbury priest told authorities 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 his arrest warrant."
The authorities starting looking into the matter when the Sacred Heart parish discovered money was missing. Gray claimed to the congregation that he had cancer and was placed on medical leave; no one at his rectory heard from him since mid-April. It turned out he was living on the Upper East Side, in a York Avenue apartment, with Weirui Zhong:
Gray told Zhong he was an attorney for Catholic Charities in New Haven and that he had attended Georgetown Law Schools. He also told Zhong he was being treated for colon cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Gray would come to New York on Wednesdays after 8 a.m. mass. He told Zhong he had his cancer treatments on Wednesday, the affidavit states. He would then stay a few days, returning to Waterbury in time for Saturday's 4 p.m. mass.
Zhong told police in a sworn statement that Gray has also been paying his tuition at Harvard University since 2008. He said Gray gave him large sums of money when Gray felt he was going to die of cancer.
Zhong said he asked Gray several times why Gray was paying him with checks from the Sacred Heart Church bank account instead of Gray's personal account. Gray said he placed his life savings, including money he had earned from winning big cases as an attorney, into the church's account.
While police questioned Zhong on June 10, Gray arrived at the apartment. Zhong asked police if he could speak with Gray first. In the presence of the detectives, Zhong asked Gray if he was an attorney, if he had ever attended Georgetown, if he had colon cancer and if he had ever had cancer. To all four questions, Gray answered "No," the affidavit states.
Gray also said he was "gay and has a problem with the church's stance on homosexuality."
Gray allegedly wrote over $1.4 million in checks from a church account. His American Express charges since 2003 were over $655,000 (hotel stays at the Waldorf! shopping at Barneys! dinner at Tavern on the Green!); he also opened up credit cards in the names of two men, one he met at a strip bar, another he hired as a male escort. A police spokesman said, "I think that's how he explained his absence from the parish."
