BishopAccountability.org
	Deacon Gets 6 Years for Stealing from Parish By Art Barnum Chicago Tribune February 7, 2011 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-deacon-gets-6-years-for-stealing-from-parish-20110207,0,6249046.story A Roman Catholic deacon who served as the business manager for a parish in West Chicago was sentenced today to six years in prison for stealing more than $317,000 from church coffers. George Valdez, 58, of the 800 block of Gates Street in West Chicago, stole the money from St. Mary’s Parish by writing duplicate checks to himself and using parish credit cards. With the funds, he bought tickets to Bears and White Sox games, helped pay for his daughter’s wedding, purchased numerous dinners at upscale restaurants and paid for hotel rooms for his personal use, prosecutors said. He also placed his family on the church health plan without paying premiums. “The parish leaders gave an out-of-work member of the parish a job and within three months he began stealing from them,” Assistant DuPage County State’s Attorney Helen Kapas-Erdman told Judge Kathryn Creswell. Fighting back tears, Valdez, who has been in the county jail since his arrest last March, said he was “sorry to my God, my family, my parish and my priest. I ask for forgiveness from all.” Valdez, who has no previous criminal record, served as the parish’s business manager from June 2006 to September 2009, when an audit of the churches finances by a new priest uncovered the embezzlement. Creswell ordered Valdez to report to her the first Monday he is out of prison to set up a repayment schedule of the $317,257 he owes. “He is not a cold-hearted thief,” said defense attorney Nicholas Kirkeles. “Things got away from him and he wanted to buy things for his family that he could not afford.” Several members of his family were present in the courtroom, but declined to comment. Valdez faced between 6 and 30 years in prison. The 30-count indictment last March came in the wake of other bad news involving the parish last year. In January 2010, a Shorewood priest was accused of molesting an 8-year-old St. Charles boy while he served as a seminarian at St. Mary's in 2005. He later was sentenced to four years in prison. Also last year, the parish's grade school, which had opened in 1922, closed as the result of low enrollment and a deficit that reached $330,000. "During the audit, we knew something was wrong right away, and that it was bad and big" the Rev. John Balluff, pastor of St. Mary's, said last year after Valdez’s arrest. In the parish bulletin distributed last Easter, Balluff stated Valdez was fired after the funds were discovered to be missing. The bulletin also stated that "the diocese is self-insured, and we will be reimbursed the full amount of the theft." Kapas said that a church insurance policy has repaid $249,000. Contact: abarnum@tribune.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.