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	Church Treasurer Seeks Plea 76-Year-Old Faces 30 Years in Prison If Convicted on Grand Theft Charge By Keyonna Summers Florida Today April 9, 2007 http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070409/NEWS01/704090335/1006 Viera - The lawyer for a former Calvary Chapel treasurer, accused of spending $1.2 million of parishioners' money on lavish cross-country and overseas trips, hopes to work out a plea agreement today that would avoid a jury trial. Rudolph Heide, 76, of Cocoa faces 30 years in prison if convicted of one count of first-degree felony grand theft. Brevard County Sheriff's investigators said he admitted he used tithes and offerings from the Merritt Island church to fund trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas and Europe. Court records show Heide surrendered his passport to authorities before his release on $115,000 bond in January. Heide's lawyer, Kepler Funk, said he is still investigating the case, but Funk expects prosecutors to extend a plea offer Monday, common during pretrial conference hearings. Heide is due to appear before Judge George Maxwell at 9:30 a.m. "If we can't resolve it (today) with some sort of agreement then I will be asking to continue the case (to a different date) because my investigation is not complete," Funk said. He declined to elaborate on the details of his investigation. Heide, a trusted church member who ran his own accounting business, had handled the church's finances for years. Assistant Pastor Logan Dalton said Heide confessed when church officials confronted him after they discovered gross discrepancies within the church's seven-figure budget during a February audit. They held off filing charges until December in order to allow Heide to apologize and make restitution, but ultimately church leaders decided they had a duty to bring Heide to justice, Dalton said. The prosecutor in charge of the case was unavailable to discuss why the state did not pursue one charge of scheming to defraud and 113 counts of depositing with intent to defraud. Contact Summers at 242-3642 or ksummers@floridatoday.com
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