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	Former Delray Beach Priest Guilty of Grand Theft By Brian Haas South Florida Sun-Sentinel February 24, 2009 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flppriest0224pnfeb24,0,5769767.story [with video] The Rev. Francis Guinan was found guilty Monday of stealing from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach in a trial that highlighted faulty bookkeeping, loose standards and lax oversight by the parent diocese. Guinan, 66, faces up to 15 years in prison for grand theft of between $20,000 and $100,000. After about 3 1/2 hours of deliberation, a six-person jury found the longtime clergyman guilty of a lesser charge than prosecutors sought, reducing his maximum sentence from 30 years in prison. Guinan didn't visibly react to the jury's decision. Deputies immediately took his suit coat and fingerprinted him. He was taken to jail after the verdict, but he may qualify for house arrest until his sentencing on March 25. The trial painted an unflattering picture of church accounting practices. Priests who testified couldn't agree what the diocese rules were for spending parish money. Clergy said in court that slush funds to hide money are common in the Catholic Church. And St. Vincent Ferrer's bookkeepers were told to shred accurate bookkeeping records, hand over wads of cash from the offertory and cook the books that were sent back to the diocese — as they testified was church policy for years. Guinan's defense attorney and the prosecutor said it wasn't a full victory or a full defeat. "They were certainly not happy with the expenditures of Father Guinan, but they recognized that the state could not prove certain elements," defense attorney Richard Barlow said. "They reached a compromise somewhere between not guilty and the maximum sentence." Prosecutor Preston Mighdoll accepted the jury's decision but had no comment on the lesser charge. "We're glad that they found the defendant accountable for his actions," he said. Efforts to reach officials at St. Vincent Ferrer for comment were unsuccessful. Instead of going to trial, Guinan's predecessor, the Rev. John Skehan, last month pleaded guilty to the harsher charge of grand theft of more than $100,000 on similar allegations. A judge will make the decision on his punishment; sentencing guidelines indicate a term of 22 months to 30 years in prison. Skehan's attorney, Scott Richardson, didn't regret the plea. "We felt that we made the right decision and we are going to present all of Father Skehan's good works to the court at the appropriate time," Richardson said. Guinan admitted he used church funds to repay personal credit card bills, allowed bookkeeping records to be faked while the real ones were shredded and took 12 trips in the 15 months he was pastor at the church ending in 2005, including six visits to Las Vegas and three to his native Ireland. But Guinan, supported by some other priests, asserted that the diocese gave priests free rein to spend sums under $50,000. This "right of discretion," Barlow said, meant Guinan could spend those sums as he wanted, no matter how reprehensible it looked. "No one here will disagree ... that it shouldn't have been done, it wasn't right, it was for personal use, you can't do it," Barlow told jurors in his closing arguments. "But legally? Yes he could." The trial also exposed the diocese's past shortcomings in keeping reins on its local parishes. Ambiguous rules, lax auditing and widely accepted hiding of cash were the rule before 2005, according to trial testimony. Michael Brough, spokesman for the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, an organization devoted to improving the church's business practices, said parishioners must be assured that their donations are going to a church's mission. "Parishes depend on the generosity of parishioners to support their work," he wrote in an e-mail. "Parishes need to be truthful in solicitation of donations and then use the funds for their intended use." Officials from the Diocese of Palm Beach released a statement Monday saying they now require parish audits every two years and have new systems for handling church money. The statement also said the diocese plans to seek restitution of the stolen money, calling Guinan's and Skehan's actions a "grave aberration from the upright conduct of the majority of the good priests of our diocese." Brian Haas can be reached at bhaas@SunSentinel.com or 561-243-6633.
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