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	Prosecutors: Newport Church Bilked out of $320,000 Former Office Manager Faces Almost a Decade in Prison in Connection with Alleged Theft By Jeff Overley Orange County Register April 9, 2008 http://www.ocregister.com/articles/church-granger-embree-2015049-newport-beach NEWPORT BEACH Newport Harbor Lutheran Church was bilked out of $320,000 by its onetime office manager, who now sits in jail facing numerous felony charges, prosecutors allege. Cheryl Lean Granger, 45, carried out the scheme while working for the church from September 2002 to February 2006, prosecutors say. As the church's bookkeeper, she forged 170 checks and made many of them out to her husband, former UC Irvine professor Richard Granger, said Susan Schroeder of the Orange County District Attorney's Office. The couple eventually moved to New Hampshire, where Cheryl Granger was arrested March 27. She waived extradition and pleaded not guilty Monday to one count of grand theft and seven counts of forgery that, along with numerous sentencing enhancements, could land her in prison for nine years and eight months. Richard Granger has not been charged, and Schroeder couldn't say whether he is under investigation. Newport Beach police did not return a call for comment. Church pastor John Embree said that church leaders reported the alleged theft after Granger departed in 2006, but that the congregation was kept in the dark to avoid compromising the investigation. Despite the heavy loss, Embree said the 200-member church is financially solvent, with little debt on the Dover Drive property it's occupied since 1970. Founded in 1945, the church has experienced other hard times of late, with one pastor dying of brain cancer in 2003 and two other pastors leaving after brief stints before Embree came aboard in 2006. Granger's case, for which the church will seek restitution, is a shock to the congregation but is being viewed through a philosophical prism, Embree said. "This," he said, "is the humanness coming out even in the church. People are people." Contact the writer: 714-445-6683 or joverley@ocregister.com
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