Rochester Woman Steals Thousands From Her Church To Go Gambling – KROC-AM

Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) -A Rochester woman has been charged with stealing a large amount of money from her church.

Twelve felony theft counts have been filed in Olmsted County Court against 62-year-old Patricia Radich.

The criminal complaint says Radich is a CPA and served as the volunteer treasurer for the church for 12 years. The church began a major fundraiser in 2015 for remodeling projects and had planned to pay off all the loans by the end of 2020. Instead, the church learned Radich had been stealing some of the money.

When the church requested its financial records last May, Radich met with the pastor and admitted taking the $183,189.03 over a four year period.

She told the pastor she had a gambling addiction and had spent the money at casinos.

According to the complaint, Radich said she started writing checks to herself in 2016 and ended in 2019 and she had gone to Mayo for counseling to get some help.

The church decided to audit its financial records and thats when it was learned the theft was much higher than reported by Radich.

It found checks totaling $422,925.90 that were made out to Radich going back to 2013.

A police investigator reviewed the church bank statements and found a large amount of funds that were withdrawn electronically and/or at ATM's of casinos. One day in particular Radich withdrew $10,500 at a casino. There were several days where Radich would withdraw between $7000 and $8000 at the casino.

Checks in the following amounts were presented for payment on the following dates during each 6 month aggregated period:

4/15/16 to 10/14/164/19/16 $ 4250.007/5/16 6500.007/28/16 2245.8410/6/16 3715.7010/12/16 6728.39Total $ 23,439.93

10/15/16 to 4/14/1711/14/16 $ 6875.3312/6/16 6850.001/20/17 3722.59Total $17,447.92

4/15/17 to 10/14/175/19/17 $ 1500.005/23/17 31,752.537/10/17 3892.408/2/17 6842.418/24/17 9249.12Total $ 53,236.46

10/15/17 to 4/14/1810/24/17 $ 6324.8510/25/17 3219.7611/2/17 3192.0011/22/17 6829.1511/29/17 6000.0012/13/17 6892.731/3/18 3712.151/24/18 3853.782/13/18 3429.842/20/18 2394.792/28/18 984.523/13/18 3149.713/14/18 2178.853/19/18 3658.52Total $ 55,820.65

4/15/18 to 10/14/186/11/18 $ 3469.846/18/18 2384.157/3/18 4879.677/17/18 3500.008/28/18 9500.009/6/18 3869.459/20/18 1888.639/21/18 8895.43Total $ 38,387.17

10/15/18 to 4/14/1910/24/18 $ 2184.6211/15/18 3879.6211/28/18 3000.001/9/19 843.791/16/19 1204.791/24/19 3928.30Total $ 15,041.12

4/15/19 to 10/14/195/17/19 $ 4500.006/19/19 7781.258/7/19 7349.14Total $ 19,630.39

10/15/19 to 12/18/1911/7/19 $ 1932.1511/20/19 2500.0012/11/19 6277.7112/18/19 1023.75Total $ 11,733.61

Radich has been ordered to appear in court May 12th for arraignment.

We feature a lot of fancy dream homes on this site, and I think it's OK to feature homes that real people can afford without paying a huge mortgage. Perfect for everyone? Nope...but for the right family, this will be a chance to dream big and have a mortgage possibly under $1,000/month.

PS - Not ripping on realtors, homebuilders, etc. They play an important role in our community. The housing crisis is what it is.

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Rochester Woman Steals Thousands From Her Church To Go Gambling - KROC-AM