UPDATED: Former Swissvale Pastor Waives Hearing Wednesday Morning

appeared before District Judge Ross C. Cioppa this afternoon to sign a subpoena and waiver of his right to a preliminary hearing as he is charged with stealing more than $143K from Word of God parish in Swissvale.

Drabiska is the former pastor of the parish. His attorney, Patrick Livingston, accompanied him to the courtroom Wednesday morning.

Livingston said the next hearing on the charges should take place sometime around the end of October. He made no further comments. Drabiska also declined to comment.

Earlier this month, Drabiska turned himself in to the police and was arraigned before Cioppa. He was subsequently charged with theft by unlawful taking and released on a non-monetary bond.

The criminal complaint against Drabiska stated that, in Nov. 2010, police interviewed diocese auditor James Stierheim, who turned over documents indicating that Drabiska had been skimming money from the parish since 1999.

The complaint avers that Stierheim became concerned with accounting at the Word of God parish in 2005, when he noticed a decline in check-to-cash percentages and a decline in the offertory “loose cash.”

Tamper-proof money bags were implemented in Jan. 2006, according to the complaint, but Drabiska was reported to have stopped using them in 2007. 

The complaint also said that parish bookkeeper Ann Soltis told Stierheim that she and Drabiska organized the collection proceeds for the money counters by opening the bags and sorting through the collection, which was contrary to standard procedures in place at the time.

In January 2011, evidence of Drabiska’s personal checking and credit accounts was obtained through a search warrant. It was revealed that he had made 33 cash deposits into a Citizens’ Bank account ranging from $50 to $580 between January 2005 and Oct. 5, 2009, totaling $7,692, as well as that he had personal charge accounts with Sears, Citicorp, Macy's and American Express.

Drabiska had a history of excess spending, the complaint said Stierheim told detectives, which caused the diocese to issue a written warning in 1998, advising him to reduce his spending by using the parish cook instead of expensive restaurants, and that all rectory table and household expenses were to be paid through the parish account.