Jury Finds Priest Stole Collections, Susan Spencer Wendel, Palm Beach Post, February 23, 2009

Jury Finds Priest Stole Collections

By Susan Spencer Wendel
Palm Beach Post
February 23, 2009

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/02/23/0223priest.html

Father Francis Guinan was found guilty of grand theft of more than $20,000 but less than $100,00.

WEST PALM BEACH — A former Delray Beach pastor accused of skimming more than $480,000 in offertory money is guilty of stealing a much smaller amount, a jury decided Monday.

Jurors, after about three hours of deliberation, convicted the Rev. Francis Guinan of grand theft of between $20,000 and $100,000, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Guinan, pastor of St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church for 19 months, will be sentenced on March 25, just days after the sentencing of the Rev. John Skehan, another St. Vincent priest who has pleaded guilty.

Circuit Judge Krista Marx ordered Guinan, 66, taken into custody immediately. He took off his tie and coat - with his daily prayer book in the pocket - before being handcuffed. He said he had left his rosary in the car.

Marx ruled that jail officials could release Guinan on house arrest if they so chose.

His defense attorney, Richard Barlow, laid blame for the scandal at the feet of the Diocese of Palm Beach, which he said was lax in giving priests no precise policy on how to spend discretionary funds.

Barlow told jurors they might think it horrible, incredible, even despicable to spend offertory money on trips to Las Vegas, tickets for female companions, furnishings, even a jewelry bill. But Guinan wasn't prevented from spending church money that way, he said.

"The diocese made a mistake," Barlow said in closing arguments. "Should Father Guinan benefit from it? Legally, yes. Morally, no."

Barlow suggested Guinan should be kicked out of the church or sued instead.

He described the prosecution as a "high-publicity stamp-out" of Guinan to scare other priests and called the decision a "compromise verdict," less than the first-degree felony of grand theft over $100,000 that Guinan was charged with.

"It was kind of a message to both sides," Barlow said. "We're not happy with you, Father Guinan, and we're not happy with the diocese."

Prosecutor Preston Mighdoll said only that he was pleased the jury held Guinan accountable for his actions.

Jurors did not respond to requests for comment.

The trial was a bruising ordeal for the diocese and Catholicism in general. Multiple priests testified that they were aware of slush funds hidden to keep money from the diocese. One priest described it as a "game" played out across the Catholic Church.

"It's a game that they play with people who come to Mass and put their money in the offertory," Mighdoll said in closing arguments. "It's an attitude that they are above the rules and above the law."

The Diocese of Palm Beach, headed by Bishop Gerald Barbarito, issued a statement after the verdict, saying it was relieved that the jurors were not swayed by an inaccurate defense presentation and offering an apology by Barbarito on behalf of all priests for the scandalous behavior.

The statement included an assurance from Barbarito that a policy of regular reviews and audits began in 2005, and that Barbarito will continue to restrict Guinan and Skehan from public ministry.

"They will be expected to lead lives in reparation for their actions," the statement said.

Guinan and Skehan were arrested in 2006. The investigation, led by now-retired Delray Beach Detective Tom Whatley, estimated that over the four decades Skehan was St. Vincent's pastor, about $8 million had been "misappropriated" or channeled into hidden funds, or was unaccounted for.

Whatley referred to the priests as "professional money launderers," and Time magazine called it the worst known case of embezzlement in U.S. Catholicism.

Guinan was on trial for thefts that allegedly occurred between his start at St. Vincent in 2003 and early 2005.

The weeklong case attracted a variety of observers: media, a former parishioner who said he came to see Guinan go to jail, a klatch of white-haired priests in street clothes who sat behind Guinan and talked with him on breaks, a retiree who at first called Guinan "a disgrace" but at the end of the trial said he was a "fall guy."

Also present for days was John McGovern, a representative of Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic watchdog organization, who said the concept of priest discretion - mentioned only a few times in church law - was greatly overblown at the trial.

"This is a fabrication by people trying to justify their actions," McGovern said.