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	Nun Pleads Guilty to Stealing from Archdiocese By Todd Cooper Omaha World-Herald March 31, 2008 http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10297829 As a Notre Dame nun, she took a vow of poverty. She then took more than $250,000 from the Archdiocese of Omaha and gambled a chunk of it away at casinos, prosecutors said today. Barbara Markey, the former director of the Catholic Family Life Office in Omaha, pleaded guilty to theft by deception. She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced in July. In return for her plea, prosecutors and the archdiocese won't oppose probation if the judge deems it suitable. The 73-year-old nun probably will have to pay about $125,000 in restitution under a proposed settlement with the archdiocese, said her attorney, J. William Gallup of Omaha. Asked by the judge what she did, Markey mentioned only the minimum threshold for the charge she faced — $1,500. Reading from a short, hand-scrawled sentence on a legal pad, Markey said: "I used at least $1,500 in funds I was not authorized to use by the finance office of the archdiocese." She then told the judge: "I'm not talking about everything they (the archdiocese) have said I did. Is that fair? Am I allowed to say that?" Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka told her she was allowed to expound on whatever she wanted. She declined to elaborate in court — and declined to comment outside the courtroom. However, prosecutor John Alagaban said the amount taken included at least $76,000 in payments and checks made to Ameristar Casino and cash advances of $80,000. The rest of the $250,000 was spent on a condo in Colorado and on gifts for her friends and relatives, prosecutors said. Alagaban said the archdiocese's investigation of Markey began after Markey claimed to have made $6,000 in cash payments to her fellow nuns. The nuns reported that they hadn't received any money — and the archdiocese expanded its investigation, Alagaban said. The archdiocese had filed civil lawsuits against Markey, accusing her of misusing more than $800,000 in archdiocese funds. They also alleged that Markey spent some of the funds on a Colorado vacation home, hotels, airline tickets, college tuition and other items for her relatives. Gallup said her plea and the $125,000 would settle all of the lawsuits against Markey. Much of the difference in the amounts, Alagaban said, lies in the fact that the archdiocese gave Markey the benefit of the doubt on whether several expenditures were business related. In reality, he said, her misappropriation of funds could exceed the $251,000. "It's at least that amount of money," he said. The Rev. Joseph Taphorn, chancellor of the archdiocese, said the archdiocese is pleased that Markey accepted responsibility for her actions. When it came to restitution, Taphorn said, the archdiocese had to weigh what it could realistically retrieve from Markey and her family, even if it was short of the whole amount. "We believe that the money has been spent," he said. Markey is no longer employed by the Omaha archdiocese but she remains a nun. "I believe the fact that she pleaded guilty to a felony charge speaks a lot," Taphorn said. "I think the fact that she's willing to pay restitution speaks for itself. We view that as accepting responsibility for her actions."
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