Priest gets 2 years community control in marijuana case
I strongly believe in the benefits of marijuana and its use for medical purposes. For some time I have seen those benefits, and they are very helpful.
- Rev. Richard Arko
At no time did the investigation show that the marijuana was being grown for medicinal purposes.
- Norton Police Lt. Thad Hete
It would seem that our latest DUMB@$$ has some serious issues. It's difficult to believe that his community entrusted him with their children and their spiritual growth.
[C]ultivating 35 plants and owning the tools to do so are illegal. Cosgrove sentenced Arko, 40, to two years of community control and 100 hours of community service. The judge, who suspended a two-year prison sentence, said Arko would be randomly tested for drugs. Arko admitted during his intake interview at the Summit County Jail that he used marijuana....
The Summit County prosecutor's office said it is investigating an allegation made in February by a 24-year-old Barberton man that Arko had molested him since he was 15. Arko was ordained in 1990 and has been in the Barberton area since 1994. He had been pastor at Prince of Peace since March 2003. The church is in Barberton, and the nearby rectory is in Norton.
After Norton police received a tip that drugs had been sold from the rectory, they bought $20 worth of marijuana from Jensen Powell, 24, whom Arko had allowed to live there. When police entered the building with a search warrant on Jan. 21, they found the marijuana plants in the spare bedroom's closet, equipment for growing them and items for making marijuana cigarettes.
I usually try to find something humorous about those (un)fortunate enough to achieve a DUMB@$$ AWARD, but I'm not sure that I can do this in this case. Arko had the trust of his Church and those he ministered to. It would appear that he abused both trusts.
I understand that wearing a clerical collar doesn't exempt one from the demons that torment all of us to varying degrees. What I find so despicable are those morally bankrupt individuals who would use that collar to camouflage their illegal, immoral, and destructive activities.
Richard Arko is a common, garden-variety drug abuser and pederast hiding behind a clerical collar. If that doesn't make one worthy of a DUMB@$$ AWARD, I don't know what will.
Here's to hoping that he will be held accountable for his crimes by those fine specimens of humanity that inhabit the Ohio correctional system.
