Lana Jacobs Accused of Taking up to $40,000 in Donations
By T.J. Greaney
Columbia Daily Tribune
January 23, 2008
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Jan/20080123News002.asp
Lana Jacobs, co-founder of St. Francis House homeless shelter for men, has left for St. Louis amid accusations of stealing as much as $40,000 in donations.
Jacobs, 58, is accused of appropriating money intended to pay utility bills and other expenses at the shelter, located at 913 Range Line St. She is also accused of falsifying real-estate documents to use the women's shelter she operated, Lois Bryant House, as collateral for a loan in 2005, unbeknownst to others involved with that charity.
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Her husband, Steve, said he discovered Jacobs had been secretly asking for donations to be sent to a personal post office box only she could access.
Upon being confronted with the missing money several times in past months, Lana Jacobs insisted none of it was used for personal benefit but was instead given to needy people who asked her for help, a claim she couldn't substantiate, Steve Jacobs said. She left town Jan. 11 to live with her sister.
St. Francis House is a "Catholic Worker Community" founded on a faith-based volunteerism movement begun in 1933 in New York City. St. Francis House and its sister shelter for women, Lois Bryant House, have a combined annual operating budget of about $40,000, according to the group's Web site.
Steve Jacobs said the local charity, which he and Lana co-founded in 1983, will continue its mission.
"It's kind of a tragic situation," he said, noting that he and the couple's daughter, Rachael Krall, were forced to bring the accusations against his wife. "We confronted her with it and asked her to leave the community."
St. Francis House has beds for 10 men and has paid for the burial of more than 30 homeless people since its inception. Though staffed by Catholic volunteers, the home regularly invites spiritual leaders of other faiths to lead prayers or services.
In a letter sent Thursday to more than 200 donors and volunteers and signed by Steve Jacobs and others, the group asked the community for forgiveness.
"These events have left us reeling, because our most visible and trusted community member repeatedly lied and concealed her improper financial activities from us," the letter says. "We are still trying to determine the scope of the misuse of funds as we prepare a plan for making things right."
Steve Jacobs said he and other volunteers are now sifting through receipts and bank statements dating back several years to determine how much is missing. He said they had alerted the Columbia Police Department to the theft and plan to turn their findings over to authorities.
When asked about possible punishment, Steve Jacobs said, "It depends on what the prosecutor decides. All we can do is be as transparent as possible ... we're still in the information collecting stage. Things are really confusing right now."
Lana Jacobs did not respond to several calls to her cell phone yesterday and this morning.
The accusations left friends in disbelief.
"This is a woman that modeled for us what living the Gospel is about, so it's a real puzzle for us," said Virginia Bzdek, treasurer for the Interfaith Council that operates Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen at Seventh Street and Park Avenue, where Lana Jacobs also volunteered. "Probably of all Catholic workers we have had in Columbia, she was the most compassionate and most dedicated person. She dealt with people nobody else in community cared to give any thought or concern to."
In October, Bzdek said, the council altered an arrangement in which Lana Jacobs paid the salary of the soup kitchen "day manager" directly with Interfaith Council funds. "She just told me, 'I'm not the world's greatest finacier,' " said Bzdek.
Steve Jacobs said members of the Catholic Workers Community had begun to suspect financial irregularities in October but believed they were caused by Lana's "chronic stress" and "overwork." In late December they discovered the fraudulent loan.
He declined to discuss what his wife might have done with the money. "It's very complicated. People are not saints, none of us are. We're not all good, and we're not all bad," he said. "She is one that has done a lot of good but made some mistakes, too. We believe the truth will set you free and you need to abide by the truth at all times and be as open as you can."
Though known for her big heart, Jacobs has seen her fair share of controversy over the years.
In 2005, she and her husband were arrested and fined after they dug a mock grave in front of the University of Missouri's Crowder Hall to protest the war in Iraq. That same year she was arrested outside a Florida nursing center when she approached the door with a bottle of water she said she intended to give to Terri Schiavo, a brain-dead woman who had been taken off life support.
Steve Jacobs spent a year in federal prison after his arrest in November 2000 during a protest at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Ga.
Reach T.J. Greaney at (573) 815-1719 or tjgreaney@tribmail.com.
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