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The Bangladesh Hindu Mandir Temple in Flushing was among the four houses of worship that Woznik admitted to burglarizing.
By Forum Staff
A 24-year-old homeless man has been sentenced to 1 ½ to 4 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty to burglary as a hate crime and other charges for a spree of break-ins at four houses of worship in Queens County earlier this year.
Joseph Woznik, 24 plead guilty in September to third-degree burglary as a hate crime, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree bail jumping in regards to an outstanding warrant issued for the defendant in Florida in 2016 on burglary, grand theft and criminal mischief charges.
In those burglaries, the defendant stole cash, checks and damaged property belonging to the religious institutions, which are located in the Flushing, Woodside and Elmhurst neighborhoods of Queens.
He has been sentenced to 1 ½ to 4 ½ years in prison.
Between March 21, 2017, and April 10, 2017, Woznik broke into four different houses of worship: the Bangladesh Hindu Mandir Temple in Flushing, Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians (St. Mary’s of Winfield) in Woodside, St. Mary’s Romanian Orthodox Church in Elmhurst and St. James Episcopal Church in Flushing, which the defendant broke into on three separate occasions.
An employee at Bangladesh Hindu Mandir Temple arrived at the building and saw that three donation boxes had been forced open and all the cash inside was missing. Latent fingerprints lifted from the donation boxes matched Woznik’s fingerprints.
At St. James Episcopal Church, which was burglarized three times, the church office door was pried open and approximately $1,600 in cash was removed in March and then in April the defendant gained entry again ransacked the office. The final break-in at the church occurred less than a week later. The same office door was pried open and three checks from the church’s checkbook were taken.
At the time of Woznik’s arrest, there were two checks from the church in his possession, as well as a pawn shop receipt that indicated a digital camera had been pawned there.
Also in April, board member of St. Mary’s Romanian Orthodox Church observed a window at their church had been broken. When he was arrested, Woznik admitted that when the alarm went off in the church he ran from the location.
On that same day, a priest at Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians (St. Mary’s of Winfield) went to the church and saw a broken window within the church door and an office within had been ransacked. A donation box had pry marks on it and a hammer was left on the floor near the donation box. A review of video surveillance footage showed a man, identified as Woznik, inside the church and he could be seen using a hammer to pry open the donation box. At the time of his arrest, Woznik admitted to removing twenty dollars from underneath a statue inside the church. When Woznik was arrested, according to the charges, he stated, in sum and substance, that “I’m mad at God. I don’t like church no more. I don’t want to deal with religion. I’m sick and tired of hearing about religion. I don’t break into houses, only churches. I break in to get back at God.”
