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Thread ID: 17870 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2005-04-20
2005-04-20 12:43 | User Profile
**Lawyer: Ex-lover extorted N.J. priest **
Pastor under probe in loss of parish cash Tuesday, April 19, 2005 BY MARGARET McHUGH Star-Ledger Staff A Roman Catholic priest under investigation for allegedly embezzling money from his Randolph parish claims a man with whom he had sex more than 25 years ago has been extorting money from him ever since, his attorney said yesterday.
The Morris County Prosecutor's Office last month tracked drifter Harold Reid, 46, to Los Angeles, where he collected recyclable bottles and cans for a living, and charged him with attempted extortion of the Rev. William Naughton.
Peter Gilbreth, Naughton's attorney, confirmed that the priest had sex with Reid in the late 1970s, and said Reid demanded money in exchange for his silence.
"One indiscretion has got him into a tough situation," Gilbreth said.
"It got very, very threatening and scary at the end," prompting Naughton to report the threats to authorities March 4, Gilbreth said.
Naughton, 61, provided investigators with recordings of 21 messages Reid left on Naughton's cell phone between Feb. 12 and March 4 of this year, saying he needed $215 to buy a bicycle, according to the arrest affidavit.
In five of the messages, Reid threatened to return to New Jersey and harm or kill Naughton, the affidavit said. The prosecutor's office only charged Reid with attempted extortion and making terroristic threats for the bicycle money demand, and not for those that Gilbreth said Reid has made over the years.
Neither Gilbreth nor Reid would say how much money Naughton gave Reid over the years.
Morris County Prosecutor Michael Rubbinaccio said his office got wind of the allegations in December, several months after the Paterson Diocese reported that Naughton had stolen funds from Resurrection Church in Randolph, where he had been pastor.
The Paterson Diocese removed Naughton from his post in 2001 after money was found missing, but only turned the matter over to law enforcement when Bishop Arthur Serratelli replaced retired Bishop Frank Rodimer last year.
Diocesan officials would not say how much Naughton allegedly stole, but parishioners have said it might be more than $500,000.
Rubbinaccio said his office's investigation of Naughton is ongoing.
In a telephone interview from the Morris County Jail yesterday, Reid confirmed having a one-time sexual encounter with Naughton in the late 1970s, but denied demanding money from him to keep quiet.
"He's a goddamn liar," Reid said.
Reid said he grew up in Clifton, where Naughton had been associate pastor, parish administrator and co-pastor of St. Brendan's Church before he was assigned to Resurrection Church in Randolph.
Reid said that when he was 16 or 17, he met Naughton at a bowling alley off Route 3, and that Naughton took him to a motel in Secaucus.
Reid said Naughton "was one of my best friends, up until now, I guess," and claimed they went into business together in the early 1990s when Reid opened an eatery in Nashville, Tenn.
Reid said Naughton accused him of extortion only after authorities began investigating Naughton for stealing. "He's trying to make me the bad man in all this," Reid said.
Naughton, who is on administrative leave from the diocese, did not return a call for comment.
Reid said Naughton sent him money over the years, but when he called in February asking for $215 to buy a bicycle for his recycling business, Naughton did not respond.
Reid said he left messages threatening to "slap" Naughton for "leaving me flat" in California.
"He promised he would always help me. He promised me," Reid said.
Reid had been charged with extortion before. He was arrested in Pompton Lakes in 1984 and charged with robbery and extortion. Reid said the allegations involved an attempt to get diet pills from his doctor. He was convicted of larceny in July 1985 and sentenced to five years in prison.
Reid said he left New Jersey when he got out of prison in 1989. He said he sold the restaurant in Nashville in 1993 and eventually opened one in Key Largo, Fla., a few years ago, but it burned down.
Reid said most recently he was making between $30 and $50 a day recycling bottles and cans, and lived under a bridge in Long Beach, Calif.
Detective Stephen Ortiz of the prosecutor's Specialized Crimes Unit, who tracked Reid down in California and brought him back to Morris County on Friday, described Reid in court papers as a transient.
In the past six years, Reid has had addresses in Key Largo; Goodlettsville, Tenn.; Flagler Beach, Fla.; Long Beach, Calif.; Springfield, Ore., Los Angeles and New Jersey. Several turned out to be hotels and one was a campsite, Ortiz said.
Superior Court Judge Salem Ahto kept Reid's bail at $125,000. Assistant Prosecutor Leslie Wade said Reid would qualify for a public defender and encouraged him to do so.
[url="http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/firstglance/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1113964220161260.xml"]http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/firstglance/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1113964220161260.xml[/url]
2005-04-20 15:21 | User Profile
If you care going to spam this board with anti-Catholic news articles, can you at least have the common courtesy to remove the advertising material from the source article before posting it?
2005-04-20 17:20 | User Profile
[QUOTE=RowdyRoddyPiper]If you care going to spam this board with anti-Catholic news articles, can you at least have the common courtesy to remove the advertising material from the source article before posting it?[/QUOTE] Hear, hear! You could also save yourself some trouble by just posting a new thread entitled 'Catholics Suck!' everyday. That way, you wouldn't have to go looking for articles.
2005-04-21 10:19 | User Profile
[QUOTE=RowdyRoddyPiper]If you care going to spam this board with anti-Catholic news articles, can you at least have the common courtesy to remove the advertising material from the source article before posting it?[/QUOTE] Glad you're reading so carefully, Hot Rod.