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	Accused Lutheran Official Fancied Fine Cars Cops Say Local Synod Treasurer Swindled over $1m. By Chad Umble Lancaster Online March 14, 2008 http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/218213 For years, when area Lutheran church members willed money from their estates to the church, Barry R. Herr took charge of the funds. As treasurer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church's 261-congregation Harrisburg-area synod, Herr handled endowment money destined to aid global missions or help pastors in need of assistance. But police say that since 1991 Herr diverted more than $1 million of that money from those church interests to one of his own: expensive luxury cars. Herr 61, of 2119 Creek Hill Road, was charged Thursday by Lower Paxton Township police with 36 counts of criminal use of a communication facility and one count of theft by deception for the alleged scheme. Police said Herr hid his actions for years by creating a bogus account — the Cardinal Investment Fund — then transferring money from there into his own bank account. Herr used the stolen money primarily to buy "expensive luxury, foreign vehicles," Lower Paxton police Lt. David Hogentogler said. "He bought several of them over the years. Harrisburg District Judge Joseph Lindsey arraigned Herr on the charges Thursday and released him on $25,000 bail. He has a formal arraignment hearing scheduled for May 1. For 28 years, Herr served as treasurer of the Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The synod has 122,000 members in Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Fulton, Franklin, Lebanon, Lancaster, Perry and York counties, including the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd on Greenfield Road, where Herr is a member. Synod officials were attending conference meetings this morning, according to an answering machine message at the synod office. "This shocking and tragic event saddens us all and touches the lives of all who are part of the gospel ministry we share in the Lower Susquehanna Synod and the church at large," Bishop B. Penrose Hoover wrote in a letter Thursday to the church members. In prepared statements on its Web site, http://www.lss-elca.org/, the synod offered its timeline of events, posted officials' responses and addressed questions raised by the case. In July 2007, the church said, Herr was fired after an internal audit turned up financial irregularities in his office. Police began to investigate in November and searched Herr's home last month. The synod's subsequent audits showed problems in funds for endowments, global missions and the church bishops' discretionary funds. Those investigations prompted law enforcement to get involved. The synod said it would need more details about the misconduct in order to understand how Herr's alleged scheme could have avoided detection. It emphasized that the money was from the synod's long-term investments, not those received through regular giving. "To the best of our knowledge irregularities that were uncovered were solely in the areas of long-term investments of synod funds, not funds received through regular giving for synodical support," Hoover said in a prepared statement. Last spring, church leaders discovered that Herr had been taking "as part of his regular compensation" payments from the synod for gas and insurance for his personal vehicle — benefits not afforded to synod officials. In August, interim financial managers hired to take over Herr's duties discovered $325,000 was missing. According to a church spokeswoman, the money was supposed to be used to buy food for children in Africa and for a "discretionary fund" that's tapped for emergencies, such as the destruction by fire of a church pastor's home, and to pay medical costs for retired pastors. The synod's legal counsel traced the checks to an account that only Herr had access to. Synod leaders took the matter to Lower Paxton police in November, and detectives discovered that the account had been opened in 1985 under the name "Cardinal Investment Fund." The account was closed in October. Police say they also learned that Herr had been been depositing endowment funds into this account over the years and transferring some money from it to his personal accounts. Last month, Lower Paxton police, with assistance from East Lampeter police, searched Herr's Creek Hill Road home and seized computers and boxes of financial records, according to Lt. Hogentogler. That's when police discovered Herr had allegedly been using the stolen money to buy "collectible" cars, which he apparently fixed up and sold, Hogentogler said. At the time police searched Herr's home, Hogentogler said, Herr had only three cars there, none of which was seized by police. Herr did not return a reporter's phone call for comment this morning. Several of Herr's neighbors along Creek Hill Road Pike in East Lampeter Township said Herr, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1985, was a friendly neighbor who would wave when he was out mowing his grass. Several neighbors, who did not want to be named, said they didn't notice any unusually fancy cars at Herr's house However, one neighbor noted that several years ago, Herr built an addition to the back of his two-car garage. Contact: cumble@LNPnews.com or 481-6031
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