Testimony Shows Priest Handled All Donations

Father David Dean Piroli always insisted on handling the collection money at St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley--even at other priests’ Masses--according to testimony that led to his indictment on embezzlement charges.

The Ventura County grand jury transcript, released Wednesday, describes the circumstances involving the discovery of a large cache of money in Piroli’s church-owned car and bedroom after a Hollywood drug arrest in May.

And it reveals that parishioners, until his arrest, had dared not voice their strong suspicion that their assistant pastor had been stealing from them.

“One thing was obvious,” testified Lyle Hibbs, chairman of the St. Peter Claver finance council. “After every Mass, David Piroli would pick up the money . . . and go over to the priest’s house with it. . . . Without fail, even when he was on vacation.”

Piroli, 36, who is awaiting a Nov. 2 trial on two counts of grand theft, is accused of embezzling $60,000 in collection money from St. Peter Claver Church and from his previous parish, Sacred Heart Church in Saticoy.

The case came to light May 27 when Los Angeles Police Department officers arrested Piroli outside a Hollywood Sears store on suspicion of embezzlement and cocaine possession after they found traces of the drug and $10,000 in small bills stuffed under the seats and floor mats of his church-owned car.

Officer Ignacio Verduzco testified that Piroli looked “very wired, jittery, tense, strung out” as police asked him about the money.

The priest said the money was his, but denied owning the cocaine, Verduzco testified.

Los Angeles prosecutors said they dropped the drug charge because there was not enough cocaine to support the case, and dropped the embezzlement charge because they believed that the church collection envelopes found in the car put the case out of their jurisdiction.

However, Ventura County authorities picked up the case and brought Piroli before the grand jury.

Under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Peace, Piroli declined to answer questions about the cash, asserting his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

A church secretary and a housekeeper testified that they discovered thousands of dollars in small bills, plus collection envelopes in Piroli’s bedroom and closet shortly after his arrest.

Church staff then stayed up until 2 a.m. counting it at the home of the church’s bookkeeper, they testified.

“We were all just in a state of shock, and we weren’t thinking that deeply about what do we do next,” testified Eileen Slavin, the secretary. “It had to be somebody else’s turn to take over.”

“I was stuck with counting the ones, and I’ll never forget it,” Hibbs testified.

Hibbs said the dollar bills were in a box, folded up, wadded up, some still folded into little airplanes by the children who had dropped them in the collection basket. He added, “I think there was $17,000 in ones.”

Church officials testified that they eventually turned over the cash to Simi Valley police.

Meanwhile, Piroli had vanished, taking the church car, which later was discovered by police in the parking lot of a Burbank medical facility.

He did not resurface until July 30 at the Mexican border, where authorities stopped him driving into California with two allegedly illegal immigrants in the trunk of his newly purchased car, and turned him over to Ventura County authorities.

An audit by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles showed that donations at both churches dipped noticeably during Piroli’s tenure, testified auditor Sandra Smith.

Collections at St. Peter Claver, which averaged more than $53,000 a year before Piroli arrived on July 2, 1990, dropped to $44,331 in 1991 and to $25,395 in 1992, she testified. At Sacred Heart, donations dropped from $30,469 in fiscal year 1987 to $23,284 in 1988 and $20,725 in 1989, before rising back to $43,318 by 1991, the year after Piroli’s transfer, she testified.

Church officials testified that they wanted to write off the losses to the recession.

“It was hard times for everyone, so possibly people were just not donating like they should,” testified Joan Bondar, the church bookkeeper.

The church’s pastor, Father Jim McKeon, said he suspected that Piroli was causing a big drop in collections after he found the assistant pastor dumping cash out of a bank bag in the church’s back rooms.

Piroli told the pastor that he was helping the money counters by laying out the collections, McKeon testified.

“But I did not see him take the money,” McKeon added. “Innocent until proven guilty. I’m sorry, but that’s how I look at it.”