Priest gets probation in theft from parish

Published: 2004-04-20

MINEOLA, N.Y. (CNS) -- A Nassau County court sentenced Father John F. Johnston to five years' probation for grand larceny April 16 after prosecutors confirmed he had repaid the $50,000 he stole from St. Martin of Tours Parish in Bethpage. Two days earlier he got the same sentence from a court in Queens County, where he lived, for criminal possession of stolen property. Father Johnston, a priest of the Brooklyn Diocese since 1964, had not been active in that diocese since 1968 when he requested leave from parish duties to teach. He was arrested in his Queens apartment last October for allegedly making harassing telephone calls to Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn. During his arrest police found in his apartment an unregistered handgun and thousands of dollars in envelopes labeled "St. Martin of Tours," the parish in the neighboring Rockville Centre Diocese where he had been celebrating weekend Masses for more than 25 years. He admitted he stole the money from the parish, taking $60 to $100 a week from the Sunday collections over a period of years.

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