Pastor steals church out from under his flock

A confession, a plea agreement
It was in jail that Radic met Roy Gerald Smith, a sex offender awaiting trial in the 2005 slaying of a woman in a death penalty case. In Radic’s blog on a now-defunct Internet site, the former pastor suggested that as he gained Smith’s confidence, Smith confessed.

Radic soon struck a deal: He would plead guilty to embezzlement and be released from prison. And prosecutors would drop nine other felony charges in exchange for Radic’s testimony.

Since Radic was not Smith’s pastor, the inmate’s incriminating statements are not protected by the usual confidentiality rules involving members of the clergy, Radic’s lawyer Michael Babitzke said.

As he awaited sentencing from the comfort of home, Radic started blogging about his personal life. He tried to solicit a literary agent for a tell-all book he called “SNITCH” and spelled out the details of how he fleeced his flock.

Describing the proposed memoir as “a kind of new Bible,” Radic wrote that “true-crime shall have a container in which to wallow, a boat which, when it embarks, will traverse the major oceans. Like an esoteric prayer, a Catholic confession, a Gregorian chant or a murderer’s insouciance, it will hum a tune inside one’s bones.”

Radic, who still lives in Ripon, did not find a buyer for “SNITCH,” but he did sign a deal last month to publish a book called “The Sound of Meat,” billed as a “(fairly) truthful” memoir.

‘Saint or ... Sinner?’
“So, you really want to know which camp I belong to ... right? Saint or ... Sinner?” he wrote on his Web page, which features grainy shots of a nearly naked woman and a portrait of Radic smoking and drinking. “The truth really is a lot more complicated. It leads down the winding paths of the human heart and challenges anyone who follows to defy it.”

The church got its title back last year, and parishioners have been able to worship there throughout the ordeal. But the church is still out tens of thousands of dollars lost in transaction fees, and has yet to recover title to the parsonage, which is owned by a real estate investor who bought it from Radic. The new pastor, Edwards, lives in a motor home.

Radic still faces a number of lawsuits — by the couple who bought the church, the title company that insured loans on the parsonage, the real estate investor and the former notary public who signed off on Radic’s fake deed for the parsonage.

But criminal proceedings against him appear likely to end when he is sentenced.

“He’s very remorseful and regretful about the situation,” his lawyer said. “I think he made some egregious mistakes. But in an imperfect world ... people behave imperfectly.”

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