FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Former Reception Hall Waiter Sentenced To Prison For Stealing Donation Box From Borough Park Synagogue
Defendant Received Two to Four Years in Prison for Burglarizing Former Employer
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that a Bensonhurst man has been sentenced to two to four years in prison for burglarizing a Borough Park synagogue which had once employed him as a waiter at its reception hall.
District Attorney Thompson said, “This defendant used his position as a former employee to steal from a house of worship. He will now pay the price for his shameful conduct.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Peter Podziewski, 23, of 1818 79th Street, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. The defendant was today sentenced to an indeterminate term of two to four years in prison by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram. The defendant pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree burglary before Justice Ingram on March 17, 2015.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on March 23, 2014, the defendant and another man, Daniel Roscher, entered Congregation Beth Jacob located at 5610 12th Avenue, in Borough Park, and stole a donation box by ripping it off of a wall. Both men had formerly worked as waiters at a reception hall affiliated with the synagogue.
Roscher, 25, of 1491 Shore Parkway, in Bensonhurst, pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary for his part in the incident last July and was sentenced to one to three years in prison. That sentence is to run concurrent to a five-year sentence he received at the same time for an unrelated case in which he pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Mark Berkowitz, of the District Attorney’s Trial Bureau V – Orange Zone, under the supervision of Thomas C. Ridges, Chief.
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