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	Bucks Man Charged in Clergy-Sex-Abuse Fraud By Larry King Philadelphia Inquirer May 8, 2010 http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20100508_Bucks_man_charged_in_clergy-sex-abuse_fraud.html After three decades, it appeared that Michael W. McDonnell still struggled with the childhood sexual abuse he claimed to have endured from two priests in Northeast Philadelphia. In the last four years alone, the 41-year-old Bucks County man professed to have spent more than $100,000 on counseling and driving to and from his $130-per-hour therapy sessions. And the Victim Assistance Program of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia reimbursed McDonnell for all of it. But now, authorities say, it appears that it is the archdiocese that has been victimized. McDonnell went to only one of the 662 "therapy visits" he had claimed since June 2007, police say, and submitted phony receipts for the rest. The 41-year-old Bristol man was arrested Friday on felony charges including theft and forgery. Police say McDonnell also pocketed more than $8,000 in donations and payments intended for the Bucks County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, where he worked until recently. The unmarried father of two was arraigned Friday morning in Doylestown. He was being held in the Bucks County prison after failing to post $110,000 bail. His attorney says McDonnell claimed to have been sexually abused as an altar boy in Northeast Philadelphia. While lawyer Christopher Serpico said he did not recall the names of the two priests involved, the ongoing payments suggest the claim was founded. Between June 2007 and February 2010, court records say, the archdiocese paid McDonnell $87,135 for 662 purported visits to a therapist in Willow Grove. He also received $13,059.57 as mileage reimbursement for traveling to and from as many as six of the supposed sessions per week. McDonnell also convinced the archdiocese that his therapist had recommended he join a Bally's Total Fitness club, and he received a $1,265 membership reimbursement, authorities say. The club had no record that the 6-foot-4, 260-pound suspect ever joined. A county detective came across the thefts while investigating lesser pilfering from McDonnell's nonprofit employer, said District Attorney David W. Heckler. McDonnell had been generating the bogus receipts using a template on his work computer, authorities allege. The allegations involving the church "kind of came out of left field during this investigation," Serpico said. "From what I'm told, though, he was abused at the age of 11 or 12." The priests were never prosecuted, Serpico said, and he knew of no civil litigation that had resulted. The archdiocese, the lawyer said, "agreed to pay for therapy and other economic needs, and apparently didn't check very well as to where this money was going." Archdiocesean spokeswoman Donna Farrell said that she could not comment on individual cases and that she did not know what kind of auditing or verification process might be applied to victim-assistance claims. "I'm not aware of any other situations such as this," she added. Heckler said it wasn't clear where the bulk of the stolen money went. Court records suggest that McDonnell used at least some of it for rent, a housecleaning service, a golf outing, and for his girlfriend to see a plastic surgeon who specializes in breast enhancement. Heckler said McDonnell, once confronted with the findings of "a very thorough investigation," refused to give a statement. McDonnell had worked since July 2006 raising funds and coordinating programs for the nonprofit county recovery program. The investigation began in February, after a donor to the program - having written a $400 check directly to McDonnell - complained that the money had been diverted and that he had been unable to get a receipt or a refund. Detectives soon uncovered an ongoing range of thefts that included funding for a charity walk, Christmas donations to needy families and children of a struggling military veteran, and rent payments from an Alcoholics Anonymous group, court records say. All told, a court document says, $8,383 that should have gone for drug and alcohol programs "was withheld by McDonnell and converted to his own use."
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