Alleged Priest & Former Abbey Owner Posts Bail

WGIL
March 27, 2012

http://www.wgil.com/localnews.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=032012&newsid=247

FIRST REPORTED 3:00pm 3/26/12 A condemned priest and former owner of Galesburg's Holy Rosary Abbey church bailed out of Knox County Jail Wednesday morning.

Knox County Circuit Court officials say Reverend Ryan St. Anne Scott paid the required 10-percent of his $75,000 dollars bond, one day after being extradited from St. Louis County.

Records indicate Scott will make his first appearance in court April 30th. Prior to bonding out Tuesday morning, he was scheduled to before a judge Tuesday afternoon via video teleconference.

Scott was arrested in Missouri last week on a Knox County warrant charging him with three felony counts of financial exploitation of an elderly person, three counts of theft, and one count of deceptive practices.

He's accused of borrowing large sums of money from an elderly Galesburg woman for his religious operations, without paying her back, between 2009 and last year. Reports show the Catholic Diocese of Peoria has previously labeled Scott as a "fraudulent" priest.

Assistant State's Attorney Erik Gibson said over the weekend that bankruptcy officials were already attempting to locate Scott in Iowa.

(Ryan St. Anne Scott. Photo from Knox County Jail)