WHAT A HEEL: The Reverend And The Rent Boys
The Rev. Kevin Gray, 64, led a double life. The parishioners at Sacred Heart in Waterbury, CT, knew him as a humble priest who always found time to minister to the poor immigrants in his parish, even though he was battling cancer. His rent boys knew him as a snappy dresser – he favored Armani, Saks 5th Avenue and Brooks Brothers – who stayed in such posh hotels as NYC’s Waldorf-Astoria, and dined at Tavern on the Green and other ritzy restaurants.
When a routine audit of the church's finances found money was missing from a parish savings account and that insurance premiums and other obligations had not been paid, church officials asked the police to launch a criminal investigation, reports The Associated Press:
Gray told church officials and others that he had cancer, but police found no evidence of that, [police Capt. Christopher Corbett] said. Saying he was undergoing treatments in New York may have been an excuse to explain his absense [sic] from the parish, he said.
Police said Gray told them he grew to hate being a priest and was upset with the archdiocese, believing he received the worst church assignments. He said he made checks payable to himself in excess of his salary over the years and admitted to having a secret phone deal in which an antenna was placed in the church steeple to generate cash. …
Gray, whose salary was less than $28,000 last year, was the only one with computer access to parish financial records, and there was no parish council or finance committee at the church, according to the arrest affidavit.
Gray was arrested charged with first-degree larceny, for (allegedly) stealing $1.3 million over seven years from the church, and was being held on $750,000 bond.
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