N4T Investigators: Breach of Faith?
Tucson – The smiling faces during scenes during last September’s Tucson Greek Festival did not show the turmoil going on behind the scenes within St. Demetrius Greek Orthodox Church.
Troy Ruboyianes is among the many St. Demetrius parishioners who volunteered to work the festival, but soon thereafter, left the church. Days after the festival, they received a letter from the parish priest, Father Earl Cantos, saying they were no longer in good standing, thus “Ineligible to vote at the upcoming Special Parish Assembly.”
The vote was to decide whether the church should sell eight acres of land it owned on E. River Rd. It was the third such vote taken by parishioners. The first two ended in favor of keeping the property, with the long-planned goal of moving from its Fort Lowell Rd. home, which was heavily damaged in a fire in 2013, and building a new church on River. With about 20 parishioners prohibited from voting, the third vote resulted in favor of the church selling the property, which it did, on Dec. 1, to Pima County, for $925,000.
Ruboyianes told the News 4 Tucson Investigators the church “just doesn’t seem to be home anymore, there’s a lot of hard feelings.” About selling the land after three votes were taken, he says, “It just seemed kind of underhanded.”
Ruboyianes was a parishioner at St. Demetrius his entire life. The 37-year old CPA says he donated $3300 to the church towards buying the River Rd. property. Ruboyianes had voted no on the sale on the first two ballots, and is among those who were banned from voting the third time. He’s also among 20 former parishioners who are suing St. Demetrios. They include some of Tucson’s biggest philanthropists, who donated a total of $373,650 for the purchase of the River Rd. land. Now, they want their money back.
Ruboyianes said, “Now that the property’s sold, our money just isn’t going to where we were told it was going to go.”
Attorney Peter Limperis represents the plaintiffs, and is also another disgruntled former life-long parishioner at St. Demetrius. Limperis says, “The plaintiffs in this case are entitled to get the money back they donated, because they donated it for a very specific purpose.”
Limperis also said that the vote was rigged, that the fix was in. His lawsuit says the sale was fraudulent, and should be voided. “The defendants made a decision to change the way this voting could occur in order to get the result that it wanted, specifically to have the property sold,” he said. We asked Limperis: “Did anyone get banned from voting who voted yes to sell the property?” He replied, “No.”
The day after agreeing to an on-camera interview, Father Cantos canceled. He instead sent us an email. Here it is, in its entirety:
“St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church has been a consistent presence in Southern Arizona for over 67 years. Over the years, Orthodox Christians and the citizens of Tucson alike have come to depend on the work that stems from our ministries. We strive to emulate Christ by doing His good works through the efforts of more than 30 ministries that are designed to meet the needs of our community and the people of Tucson. Many people know us from our Greek Festival which is held every September and from our work the last 31 years with the Salvation Army during Thanksgiving to feed the disadvantaged. Our presence in this town will continue and will expand in the years to come.
Our legal advisors have asked us not to discuss this matter further until we have an opportunity the review the matter.”
Father Earl Cantos, Parish Priest
Cantos became the parish priest in 2008, shortly after the church bought the River Rd. property for $1.2 million. The land is in a flood plain, which the church was well aware of at the time. But Cantos says the church eventually discovered that potential flooding issues were worse than originally thought. Many parishioners disagree, citing an engineer’s study. More than 40 of them sent the church a letter in January of this year strongly urging the move to River Rd.
Ruboyianes says of his fellow former parishioners, “The have put their blood and their sweat and their work and their money into seeing a vision for their future children, and it was just kind of scrapped.”
Full disclosure: Plaintiffs’ attorney Peter Limperis also represents KVOA-TV in legal matters. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if this lawsuit affects the sale of the River Rd. property from the church to Pima County. It is a case we will be following.
If you have a story you’d like us to investigate, email us at investigators@kvoa.com, or call our tip line, at 520-955-4444.