A gunman entered South Orangetown Middle School this morning but was disarmed by the schools superintendent, who tackled the man and wrestled the gun away from him, police said.
No one was injured.
As many as three shots were fired, but it was not clear if those rounds came from the gunman or the massive police response, officials said. The gunman has been taken into custody, according to Orangetown Police Chief Kevin Nulty. The man has some ties to the schools, but police were not immediately sure what they were. When police found the man inside the building, Superintendent Ken Mitchell had the suspect pinned to the ground and had taken the gun away from him.
Mitchell, 54, was not hurt. The first reports of the shooting were called into Orangetown police by a school security guard at 11:30 a.m. Students in the school, which serves grades six through eight, remained in the classroom as police searched the building. Frantic parents tried to enter the schools, but were stopped by police.
Police were setting up an information center at the Sons of Italy building on 46 Van Wyck Road., Blauvelt. "I'm scared to death," said Jennifer Gura, whose two sons, 11, and 14, were in the building, as she stood on the corner of Van Wyck and Erie Street. Students were sending text messages to parents from inside the school.
Kathy Fidlow, whose 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter were in the school, said she had gotten a message from her children telling her that everyone was in the school on the floor.
"The kids are terrified," she said. Nulty said the Orangetown police used an emergency plan that they had developed after the Columbine shootings 10 years ago.
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Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Jet's tail found; U.S. helps hunt black boxes (www.BlasterMix.com)
Brazilian searchers found a large tail section from an Air France jet Monday, one of the biggest pieces yet recovered from wreckage that could help narrow the search for Flight 447's black boxes. A U.S. Navy team is bringing in high-tech underwater listening devices to detect pings from the data and voice recorders.
Brazilian and French military ships that have so far recovered 16 bodies and large amounts of plane wreckage searched amid a sea of floating debris, finding the tail section with Air France's trademark red and blue stripes. All the wreckage has been found bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean; the Brazilians don't have the means of locating underwater debris.
Meanwhile, Le Monde in Paris reported that the French pilots' association was directing its members "refuse all flights on Airbus 330/340 unless two of its speed measuring devices —the pitot tubes — have been replaced."
The investigation is increasingly focused on whether external instruments on the Airbus A330 may have iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane's speed too fast or slow — a potentially deadly mistake.
Airspeed instruments not replaced
The French agency investigating the disaster said airspeed instruments on the plane had not been replaced as the maker had recommended, but cautioned that it was too early to draw conclusions about what role that may have played in the crash.
The agency, BEA, said the plane received inconsistent airspeed readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.
On Monday, Brazilian military officials reduced the number of recovered bodies from the 17 announced Sunday, saying there had been a counting error.
What caused the Airbus A330 to crash May 31 with 228 people on board will remain a mystery unless searchers can locate the plane's black box flight data and voice recorders, likely buried deep in the middle of the ocean.
Two U.S. Navy devices that can detect emergency beacons to a depth of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) are being flown to Brazil with a Navy team, according to the Pentagon. They will be delivered to ships that will then listen for transmissions from the black boxes, which are programmed to emit signals for at least 30 days.
16 bodies recovered
Sixteen bodies were recovered Saturday and Sunday about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from where the jet sent out messages signaling electrical failures and loss of cabin pressure.
Authorities also announced that searchers spotted two airplane seats and debris with Air France's logo, and recovered dozens of structural components from the plane. They had already recovered jet wing fragments, and said hundreds of personal items believed to belong to passengers were plucked from the water.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his nation's military would do all it can to retrieve bodies and return them to relatives.
"We know how significant it is for a family to recover their loved one," Silva said Monday on his weekly radio show.
France is leading the investigation into the cause of the crash, while Brazilian officials are focusing on the recovery of victims and plane wreckage.
There is "no more doubt" that the wreckage is from Air France Flight 447, Brazilian Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz said Sunday.
Flight 447 disappeared and likely broke up in midair in turbulent weather the night of May 31 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The search is focusing on a zone of several hundred square miles (square kilometers) roughly 400 miles northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.
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Saturday, June 6, 2009
SD lottery winner 'will not squander' $232M prize (www.BlasterMix.com)
S.D. – It has the makings of a Hollywood script: A young rancher struggling to eke out a living in one of the poorest corners of the nation claims one of the biggest undivided jackpots in U.S. lottery history — $232 million — after buying the ticket in a town called Winner. As he sported a black cowboy hat and a huge grin, 23-year-old Neal Wanless accepted his giant-sized Powerball check at a ceremony Friday. Wanless, who is single and lives with his mother and father on the family's 320-acre ranch near Mission, said he's going to buy himself a bigger spread, repay the kindness other townspeople have shown his family and spend his newfound fortune wisely. "I want to thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity and blessing me with this great fortune. I will not squander it," he said. Wanless bought $15 worth of tickets to the May 27 30-state drawing at a convenience store in Winner during a trip to buy livestock feed.
He will take home a lump sum of $88.5 million after taxes are deducted — an astonishing fortune, even more so in rural Todd County, the nation's seventh-poorest county in 2007, according to the Census Bureau. Arlen Wanless, the winner's father, has been buying and selling scrap metal to make a living in recent years, but his fortunes dropped with the price of iron, said Dan Clark, an auctioneer from Winner and a friend of more than two decades.
Dave Assman, who owns farmland next to the Wanless ranch, said he is happy they won't have to worry about money any more. "They've been real short on finances for a long time," Assman said. "They are from real meager means, I guess you'd say." "I hope they enjoy their money," said county assessor Cathy Vrbka, a family friend. "They work hard, backbreaking hard work."
Neal Wanless' winnings are certainly enough to set him and his family up for life, but past lottery winners have burned through vast fortunes in spectacular fashion or found that they were better off before they struck it rich. Evelyn Marie Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice in the mid-1980s but still managed to lose the entire $5.4 million. And there's West Virginia's Jack Whittaker, who won $315 million on Christmas day, 2002, and five years later was blaming the money for causing his granddaughter's fatal drug overdose, his divorce, his inability to trust and hundreds of lawsuits filed against him. "I don't have any friends," he told The Associated Press in 2007. "Every friend that I've had, practically, has wanted to borrow money or something and of course, once they borrow money from you, you can't be friends anymore." Susan Bradley, whose company in Palm Beach, Fla., the Sudden Money Institute, provides financial planning to the abruptly wealthy, said it's a good sign that Wanless took his time to come forward.
Neal Wanless' winnings are certainly enough to set him and his family up for life, but past lottery winners have burned through vast fortunes in spectacular fashion or found that they were better off before they struck it rich. Evelyn Marie Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice in the mid-1980s but still managed to lose the entire $5.4 million. And there's West Virginia's Jack Whittaker, who won $315 million on Christmas day, 2002, and five years later was blaming the money for causing his granddaughter's fatal drug overdose, his divorce, his inability to trust and hundreds of lawsuits filed against him. "I don't have any friends," he told The Associated Press in 2007. "Every friend that I've had, practically, has wanted to borrow money or something and of course, once they borrow money from you, you can't be friends anymore." Susan Bradley, whose company in Palm Beach, Fla., the Sudden Money Institute, provides financial planning to the abruptly wealthy, said it's a good sign that Wanless took his time to come forward.
"No opportunity to buy or invest in all that is going to go away, she said. "They have plenty of time." But she said Wanless will likely experience the same sense of isolation that many other large jackpot winners do. "They've lost their peers. They are substantially different from everyone that they know," she said. Bradley said lottery winners should make sure they have enough money to live a modest lifestyle and take a year or two before deciding to buy real estate or make risky purchases. It's important that the winners communicate that strategy to others hoping to direct their financial planning, she said.
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Friday, June 5, 2009
Credit history can be used to deny you a job (www.BlaterMix.com)
IF you’ve been laid off, your hours have been cut or you’ve had a hard time finding work recently, you’re in good company. Connecticut unemployment is at its highest level in 15 years, with more layoffs happening around the state each week.
What you might not know is that when companies begin to hire again, you could get screened out of a job based on your credit history.
More employers are conducting credit checks of job applicants on the theory they can help to determine character. Forty-three percent of employers in the United States today conduct credit checks on job applicants, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. This may deny employment opportunities for many job seekers in Connecticut, and should be banned for a number of reasons.
Credit checks for hiring decisions discriminate against black and Latino job applicants, whose average credit scores are 5 percent to 35 percent lower than those of white applicants, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.
Lending practices and the foreclosure crisis likely have increased this disparity, as black and Latino borrowers were more than twice as likely as whites to receive high-cost home loans in 2006. A foreclosure can cause a credit score to drop by 250 and remains on a credit history for seven years.
For all job applicants, credit checks create an unfair downward spiral, in which those who are behind on their bills because they lost a job or had hours reduced can’t get a job or promotion because they’re behind on their bills. Using credit reports in hiring creates a permanent barrier to better jobs for a growing portion of workers who are affected by the financial system’s credit crisis.
Furthermore, credit reports simply cannot predict job performance. If your credit takes a dive because your son was in the hospital, are you less likely to be a reliable technician? If you go through a divorce that wrecks your credit, can you not be a good a cashier?
Credit reports were designed by TransUnion and other companies to predict whether a consumer would pay bills on time, not the consumer’s job performance. The definitive study on this, presented to the American Psychological Association Society in 2003, concludes there is no relationship whatsoever between credit history and job performance.
Given these reasons, together with the fact that credit scores are notoriously inaccurate and difficult to correct, we stand in support of federal legislation, HB 5521, that restricts this practice.At a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Labor and Public Employees Committee, credit reporting giant TransUnion testified in opposition to the bill, which limits a growing source of revenue for the company.
TransUnion’s testimony named hotel workers, who often are represented by our union, as a security threat to guests. Our members work hard, are honest and eager to do their part to rebuild the economy. Each day they help ensure the safety and comfort of guests, and we take offense at TransUnion’s unsubstantiated accusations.
In tough times, the last thing we need are hiring practices that promote economic segregation by denying opportunities to those most affected by the downturn. We commend the House of Representatives, which passed HB 5521, for taking a stand against employment discrimination. Please join us in urging the Senate to approve this important protection.
More Here www.BlasterMx.com
What you might not know is that when companies begin to hire again, you could get screened out of a job based on your credit history.
More employers are conducting credit checks of job applicants on the theory they can help to determine character. Forty-three percent of employers in the United States today conduct credit checks on job applicants, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. This may deny employment opportunities for many job seekers in Connecticut, and should be banned for a number of reasons.
Credit checks for hiring decisions discriminate against black and Latino job applicants, whose average credit scores are 5 percent to 35 percent lower than those of white applicants, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.
Lending practices and the foreclosure crisis likely have increased this disparity, as black and Latino borrowers were more than twice as likely as whites to receive high-cost home loans in 2006. A foreclosure can cause a credit score to drop by 250 and remains on a credit history for seven years.
For all job applicants, credit checks create an unfair downward spiral, in which those who are behind on their bills because they lost a job or had hours reduced can’t get a job or promotion because they’re behind on their bills. Using credit reports in hiring creates a permanent barrier to better jobs for a growing portion of workers who are affected by the financial system’s credit crisis.
Furthermore, credit reports simply cannot predict job performance. If your credit takes a dive because your son was in the hospital, are you less likely to be a reliable technician? If you go through a divorce that wrecks your credit, can you not be a good a cashier?
Credit reports were designed by TransUnion and other companies to predict whether a consumer would pay bills on time, not the consumer’s job performance. The definitive study on this, presented to the American Psychological Association Society in 2003, concludes there is no relationship whatsoever between credit history and job performance.
Given these reasons, together with the fact that credit scores are notoriously inaccurate and difficult to correct, we stand in support of federal legislation, HB 5521, that restricts this practice.At a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Labor and Public Employees Committee, credit reporting giant TransUnion testified in opposition to the bill, which limits a growing source of revenue for the company.
TransUnion’s testimony named hotel workers, who often are represented by our union, as a security threat to guests. Our members work hard, are honest and eager to do their part to rebuild the economy. Each day they help ensure the safety and comfort of guests, and we take offense at TransUnion’s unsubstantiated accusations.
In tough times, the last thing we need are hiring practices that promote economic segregation by denying opportunities to those most affected by the downturn. We commend the House of Representatives, which passed HB 5521, for taking a stand against employment discrimination. Please join us in urging the Senate to approve this important protection.
More Here www.BlasterMx.com
Eminem 'thrilled' about pulling off Bruno stunt (www.BlasterMix.com)
Eminem says he knew full well what he was about to face at the MTV Movie Awards — including Sacha Baron Cohen's bare butt.
Enimem told the Web site RapRadar.com that the much-talked about stunt was all rehearsed, right down to Eminem's mock disgust. Says the rapper: "I'm thrilled that we pulled this off better than we rehearsed it."
Eminem says when he left the show, he went back to his hotel and laughed for three hours, including as he watched the playback.
The rapper calls himself a "big fan" of Baron Cohen, who he said approached him about the gag while he was in Europe.
At Sunday's live show, the comedian descended from the ceiling on a wire in a fake mishap that ended with his bare hindquarters in Eminem's face.
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Enimem told the Web site RapRadar.com that the much-talked about stunt was all rehearsed, right down to Eminem's mock disgust. Says the rapper: "I'm thrilled that we pulled this off better than we rehearsed it."
Eminem says when he left the show, he went back to his hotel and laughed for three hours, including as he watched the playback.
The rapper calls himself a "big fan" of Baron Cohen, who he said approached him about the gag while he was in Europe.
At Sunday's live show, the comedian descended from the ceiling on a wire in a fake mishap that ended with his bare hindquarters in Eminem's face.
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French, Brazilians still on hunt for downed Airbus (www.BlasterMix.com)
French and Brazilian search teams have found no debris confirmed to have come from the Airbus A330 that vanished over the Atlantic, officials said Friday. Confusion broke out after Brazilian officials said Thursday that a helicopter had plucked from the sea an airplane cargo pallet from the Air France flight — only to retract the claim hours later. France's Transportation Minister, Dominique Bussereau, suggested Friday that searchers were back to square one in the hunt for Flight 447 bound from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, which went down off Brazil late Sunday.
"French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent," Bussereau told France's RTL radio. "Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing." A French Defense Ministry official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said French teams "cannot precisely confirm the zone where the plane went down." Also Friday, Brazil's Air Force was flying designated relatives of victims Friday from Rio de Janeiro to the military's search command post in the northeastern city of Recife so they could tour the operation and ask questions. Recife has a large air force base where debris and any human remains will be brought after being picked up at sea. The pallet Brazilian officials initially said came from the plane pallet was made of wood, and the plane was not carrying wooden pallets, Brazilian Air Force Gen. Ramon Cardoso told reporters. He did not say where the pallet might have come from. "So far, nothing from the plane has been recovered," Cardoso said. Cardoso said a large oil slick spotted by search plane pilots was not from the Airbus, but that another slick of kerosene found may have been from the downed passenger jet.
"The oil was not from the plane because there wasn't oil of that quantity (on the plane) to cause that slick," he said. Bussereau called the false finding of debris by the Brazilian teams "bad news ... We would have preferred that it had come from the plane and that we had some information," he said. Bussereau said the search must continue and stressed that the priority was finding the flight recorders. The plane went down with 228 people on board in the world's worst aviation disaster since 2001. French officials stopped short of criticizing their Brazilian counterparts. "Brazilian authorities first indeed hoped to have found parts of the plane, then unfortunately, arriving in the area, realized it wasn't the case," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier. "Unfortunately that can happen." French Defense Minister Herve Morin and the Pentagon have said there no signs that terrorism was involved, but Morin declined to rule out the possibility. From the start of the investigation, "I've said we can't exclude terrorism," Morin told reporters Friday. "We have no element which allows us to corroborate that." "The inquiry that is taking place has never excluded this thesis," he said. Brazil's defense minister said the possibility was never considered. Investigators are looking into whether malfunctions in instruments used to determine airspeed may have led the plane to be traveling at the wrong speed when it encountered turbulence from towering thunderstorms over the Atlantic. Two aviation industry officials told The Associated Press on Thursday that investigators were studying the possibility that an external probe that measures air pressure may have iced over. The probe feeds data used to calculate air speed and altitude to onboard computers. Another possibility is that sensors inside the aircraft reading the data malfunctioned.
If the instruments were not reporting accurate information, the jet could have been traveling too fast or too slow as it hit turbulence from violent thunderstorms, according to the officials.
Jetliners need to be flying at just the right speed when encountering violent weather, experts say — too fast and they run the risk of breaking apart. Too slow, and they can lose control.
European planemaker Airbus has sent an advisory to all operators of the A330 reminding them of how to handle the plane in conditions similar to those experienced by Flight 447, which was an Airbus A330-200 version. Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon said the planemaker sent a reminder of A330 operating procedures to airlines late Thursday after the French agency investigating the crash said the doomed flight had faced turbulent weather and inconsistency in the speed readings by different instruments. That meant "the air speed of the aircraft was unclear," Dubon said. In such circumstances, flight crews should maintain thrust and pitch and — if necessary — level off the plane and start troubleshooting procedures as detailed in operating manuals, Dubon said. Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100 mph (160 kph) updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean. The moist air rushed up to the plane's high altitude, where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence. The jetliner's computer systems ultimately failed, and the plane broke apart likely in midair as it crashed into the Atlantic on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris Sunday night. But investigators will have little to go on until they recover the plane's "black box" flight data and voice recorders, now likely on the ocean floor miles beneath the surface.
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"French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent," Bussereau told France's RTL radio. "Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing." A French Defense Ministry official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said French teams "cannot precisely confirm the zone where the plane went down." Also Friday, Brazil's Air Force was flying designated relatives of victims Friday from Rio de Janeiro to the military's search command post in the northeastern city of Recife so they could tour the operation and ask questions. Recife has a large air force base where debris and any human remains will be brought after being picked up at sea. The pallet Brazilian officials initially said came from the plane pallet was made of wood, and the plane was not carrying wooden pallets, Brazilian Air Force Gen. Ramon Cardoso told reporters. He did not say where the pallet might have come from. "So far, nothing from the plane has been recovered," Cardoso said. Cardoso said a large oil slick spotted by search plane pilots was not from the Airbus, but that another slick of kerosene found may have been from the downed passenger jet.
"The oil was not from the plane because there wasn't oil of that quantity (on the plane) to cause that slick," he said. Bussereau called the false finding of debris by the Brazilian teams "bad news ... We would have preferred that it had come from the plane and that we had some information," he said. Bussereau said the search must continue and stressed that the priority was finding the flight recorders. The plane went down with 228 people on board in the world's worst aviation disaster since 2001. French officials stopped short of criticizing their Brazilian counterparts. "Brazilian authorities first indeed hoped to have found parts of the plane, then unfortunately, arriving in the area, realized it wasn't the case," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier. "Unfortunately that can happen." French Defense Minister Herve Morin and the Pentagon have said there no signs that terrorism was involved, but Morin declined to rule out the possibility. From the start of the investigation, "I've said we can't exclude terrorism," Morin told reporters Friday. "We have no element which allows us to corroborate that." "The inquiry that is taking place has never excluded this thesis," he said. Brazil's defense minister said the possibility was never considered. Investigators are looking into whether malfunctions in instruments used to determine airspeed may have led the plane to be traveling at the wrong speed when it encountered turbulence from towering thunderstorms over the Atlantic. Two aviation industry officials told The Associated Press on Thursday that investigators were studying the possibility that an external probe that measures air pressure may have iced over. The probe feeds data used to calculate air speed and altitude to onboard computers. Another possibility is that sensors inside the aircraft reading the data malfunctioned.
If the instruments were not reporting accurate information, the jet could have been traveling too fast or too slow as it hit turbulence from violent thunderstorms, according to the officials.
Jetliners need to be flying at just the right speed when encountering violent weather, experts say — too fast and they run the risk of breaking apart. Too slow, and they can lose control.
European planemaker Airbus has sent an advisory to all operators of the A330 reminding them of how to handle the plane in conditions similar to those experienced by Flight 447, which was an Airbus A330-200 version. Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon said the planemaker sent a reminder of A330 operating procedures to airlines late Thursday after the French agency investigating the crash said the doomed flight had faced turbulent weather and inconsistency in the speed readings by different instruments. That meant "the air speed of the aircraft was unclear," Dubon said. In such circumstances, flight crews should maintain thrust and pitch and — if necessary — level off the plane and start troubleshooting procedures as detailed in operating manuals, Dubon said. Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100 mph (160 kph) updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean. The moist air rushed up to the plane's high altitude, where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence. The jetliner's computer systems ultimately failed, and the plane broke apart likely in midair as it crashed into the Atlantic on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris Sunday night. But investigators will have little to go on until they recover the plane's "black box" flight data and voice recorders, now likely on the ocean floor miles beneath the surface.
More here http://www.blastermix.com/
Pastor pleads not guilty to stealing $432G from Westchester church
The Rev. Patrick Dunne was solemn and silent yesterday as he entered a not-guilty plea to stealing $432,000 from his White Plains church, including money intended for Hurricane Katrina victims.
Dunne, the 63-year-old former pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, was arraigned in state Supreme Court in White Plains on an indictment charging him with second-degree grand larceny. He is accused of stealing the money over a six-year period and using it for personal expenses and recreation, including gambling. The case went to a grand jury last week after months of negotiations between prosecutors and Dunne's lawyer failed to produce a plea bargain. Dunne, pastor of the Mamaroneck Avenue church since 1991, is facing up to 15 years in prison on the felony charge. His attorney, Richard Ferrante, entered yesterday's plea. Dunne answered "yes" when Justice William A. Wetzel asked him if he realized he must make every court appearance in order to remain free without bail. Outside court, Ferrante said Dunne wanted to settle the case as soon as possible. "He dedicated his life to helping other people," Ferrante said. "He's eager to resolve this matter and move on and continue helping people. "The case was assigned to Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli, who will meet with both sides at a July 7 conference to discuss how much, if any, restitution will be paid, Ferrante said. The investigation began in the fall, when staff members at the church alerted the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York after noticing that undocumented checks were being cashed on church accounts. The District Attorney's Office, which learned about the missing money in February, said the thefts started in 2002. During that time, the church got a new rectory and parish center hall as part of an expansion for which parishioners contributed nearly $3 million. The money that was stolen had been donated by parishioners to different fundraising efforts by the church, such as the building fund, a collection for Katrina victims and the weekly offering used for general church expenses. It was also taken from an account that had been set up to pay clergy members who came to the church to celebrate Mass, authorities say. A spokesman for the archdiocese, Joseph Zwilling, said the archdiocese would not be responsible for repaying any of the money that Dunne is accused of stealing. Ferrante, a parishioner at Dunne's former church, has conceded that his client had a gambling addiction and said he was now in an outpatient treatment program. Zwilling said the archdiocese "continues to keep Father Dunne, and all of the parishioners of Our Lady of Sorrows Church, in our prayers."
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Dunne, the 63-year-old former pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, was arraigned in state Supreme Court in White Plains on an indictment charging him with second-degree grand larceny. He is accused of stealing the money over a six-year period and using it for personal expenses and recreation, including gambling. The case went to a grand jury last week after months of negotiations between prosecutors and Dunne's lawyer failed to produce a plea bargain. Dunne, pastor of the Mamaroneck Avenue church since 1991, is facing up to 15 years in prison on the felony charge. His attorney, Richard Ferrante, entered yesterday's plea. Dunne answered "yes" when Justice William A. Wetzel asked him if he realized he must make every court appearance in order to remain free without bail. Outside court, Ferrante said Dunne wanted to settle the case as soon as possible. "He dedicated his life to helping other people," Ferrante said. "He's eager to resolve this matter and move on and continue helping people. "The case was assigned to Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli, who will meet with both sides at a July 7 conference to discuss how much, if any, restitution will be paid, Ferrante said. The investigation began in the fall, when staff members at the church alerted the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York after noticing that undocumented checks were being cashed on church accounts. The District Attorney's Office, which learned about the missing money in February, said the thefts started in 2002. During that time, the church got a new rectory and parish center hall as part of an expansion for which parishioners contributed nearly $3 million. The money that was stolen had been donated by parishioners to different fundraising efforts by the church, such as the building fund, a collection for Katrina victims and the weekly offering used for general church expenses. It was also taken from an account that had been set up to pay clergy members who came to the church to celebrate Mass, authorities say. A spokesman for the archdiocese, Joseph Zwilling, said the archdiocese would not be responsible for repaying any of the money that Dunne is accused of stealing. Ferrante, a parishioner at Dunne's former church, has conceded that his client had a gambling addiction and said he was now in an outpatient treatment program. Zwilling said the archdiocese "continues to keep Father Dunne, and all of the parishioners of Our Lady of Sorrows Church, in our prayers."
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