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	Bucks County Man Who Stole $100k from Archdiocese for Breast Implants to Be Sentenced By Artemis Coughlan The Trentonian January 5, 2011 http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2011/01/05/news/doc4d24d883101d2770262506.txt Sentencing is set for Thursday for the Bucks County social worker who said he stole $100,000 from the Catholic church because he was abused by a priest as a boy and needed the money to buy implants for his girlfriend’s breasts. Michael W. McDonnell, 42, of Bristol, Pa., pleaded guilty in October to charges including theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, criminal use of a communications facility and bad checks, according to the website of Bucks Court of Common Pleas. Before pleading out, McDonnell intended to argue that he was mentally ill because of abuse by some pedophile priest. McDonnell worked for the Philadephia Archdiocese for years as the coordinator of the Bucks County Council on Alcoholism. He admitted in court that he took the church for $101,000 over the years by forging invoices to make them look like reimbursements for counseling sessions he attended to cope with memories of the sex abuse. Investigators determined, however, that McDonnell attended onoy a few counseling sessions but claimed he was in therapy six times a week starting in 2007. The forgeries were uncovered during a probe into more than $9,000 in missing donations to the church. Investigators said he used the money to get his girlfriend breast enlargements, pay bills, pay a housekeeper, golf outings and trips the the New Jersey shore, among other things, according to reports. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jay H. Karsch and he will be sentenced by Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Albert J. Cepparulo.
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