Woman Gets Probation, $5k Fine in Charity Fraud Case
Detroit News
A woman who authorities say conspired with a Catholic priest to embezzle money from a church charity was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Dorreca Brewer, 34, of Jackson said nothing as she was sentenced by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Morrow. Her lawyer, Southfield attorney Randall Upshaw, had asked that Brewer be ordered to give back only $2,000 of the money Upshaw says she is responsible for taking. But Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Woodyard asked Morrow to order Brewer to also pay back $3,000 given to needy applicants which was split with her co-defendant, the Rev. Timothy Kane. Upshaw said Brewer did not receive any of the money from the two "straw" applicants who received $1,500 each from the fund. "She did not receive a dime," Upshaw said. Morrow, however, said Brewer was culpable for the $3,000 in addition to the $2,000 she received through a grant. "In for a penny ... in for a pound," Morrow told Brewer and her attorney. Brewer took a plea deal in the case earlier this year pleading no contest to embezzlement, conspiracy and related charges. Brewer and Kane are accused of defrauding the Angel Fund Catholic charity using an elaborate scheme consisting of "straw" applicants to apply for grants through the charity set up to help needy people in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. The fund is supported by an anonymous donor family and administered by the Archdiocese of Detroit. Since 2005, it has provided more than $17 million in grants, according to the archdiocese. Kane, 57, was convicted Oct. 7 on embezzlement, conspiracy and other related charges for embezzling about $131,000 from the fund through a "scam" using straw applicants to apply for $1,500 grants for the needy and then receiving kickbacks on some of the money paid out. He will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Dec. 12. Kane led the scheme, Assistant Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Colleta said during Kane's trial. Kane, Colletta said, would also receive a cut of the money along with a Michigan prison inmate with whom Kane was having a relationship. Brewer met Kane through the inmate. "He spent the (Angel Fund) money to enrich his boyfriend," Colleta said during his closing arguments in Kane's trial. The prosecutor added Kane talked about the scheme during phone calls with the inmate. An investigation by the Michigan Department of Corrections led to a subsequent probe by the archdiocese that ended in charges against Kane and Brewer. Colleta said Kane spent his part of the money providing for the inmate's family. He also paid rent for the mother of the inmate's child, the prosecutor told jurors Tuesday. About 131 Angel Fund grants are suspected to have been fraudulently obtained from August 2008 to July 2012. Colleta told the jurors Kane confessed to the scheme after his arrest by police in February. He's been removed from the ministry, archdiocese officials have said. Kane, however, remains an ordained priest although he cannot preside over Mass or church duties. Contact: bwilliams@detroitnews.com
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