Washington Pastor Guilty of Fraud in Fake Lottery Ticket scam

The former pastor of a Washington Borough, N.J., church was sentenced Thursday to three years in state prison for concocting a fake lottery-style scheme to raise money for the church. The Rev. Robert Ascolese, 46, of 101 Center St., Perth Amboy, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge John Pursel for theft and two counts of theft by deception. All other charges were merged. He was fined $405.

Pursel did not object to Ascolese applying for the state's Intensive Supervision Program, which would allow the priest to serve his time outside of prison. When Ascolese pleaded guilty on April 11, Assistant Prosecutor Craig Barto explained St. Joseph's Parish was suffering from financial problems and was trying to start a school.

Ascolese devised a Powerball lottery-type raffle that would generate $400,000 from ticket sales, of which $200,000 would automatically go to the church treasury. Ascolese purchased unsold tickets under fictitious names that ''won'' each lottery from 2001 through 2005. He issued checks to the fictitious winners and cashed them. Winning ticket money was turned over to the church treasury. Ascolese gave funds to parishioners who worked for or retired from Johnson & Johnson Inc. or the Merck & Co. to be listed as ''donations'' to a church program to assist drug addicts. When the companies matched the donations, all the money went into the church treasury. Barto said Johnson & Johnson matched $75,000 and Merck donated $200,000.

Approximately 25 to 30 parishioners came to court to support ''Father Bob.'' Many were willing to testify for their priest. Pursel said he had never before received as many character-reference letters as he had for Ascolese. ''I have no doubt that over the 19 years he has been a priest, Father Ascolese was an instrument of God's blessing and mercy to many people -- but he is no Robin Hood,'' testified Monsignor William Benwell, vicar general of the Diocese of Metuchen.

Benwell denied the diocese imposed the responsibility on Ascolese to build a church elementary school and maintain it at ''an unsustainable cost to the parish.'' ''Father Ascolese consistently maintained that all was going well,'' he said. ''We know now that the parish financial statements submitted to the diocese each year were inaccurate.'' ''I must thank the court and the press for showing there was no desire for personal gain,'' Ascolese said. ''I have nothing. Everything went to the people I served.''

But Benwell said Ascolese ''did benefit personally from his misconduct.'' Ascolese disagreed with Benwell and contended two monsignors had requested the school. ''I saw it as my mission to start the school,'' Ascolese said. Ascolese apologized for any harm that came to the diocese. ''I gave 26 years of my life to the diocese and my congregation,'' he said. ''It was never my intention to be malicious.''

Defense attorney Melvin Wright Jr. noted Merck and Johnson & Johnson were not seeking restitution.