Priest is accused of stealing

The former priest at Vancouver’s St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church appeared in Superior Court on Tuesday for allegedly stealing more than $50,000 from the parish.

The Rev. Armando Sosa Perez, 55, entered not-guilty pleas to three counts of first-degree theft and one count of money laundering. He is accused of taking the money from the church at 8701 N.E. 119th St. between July 2011 and September 2014, court records show.

The majority of the stolen money came from cash paid for fees and given as donations and offerings by Hispanic parishioners, court documents say. Perez also used the parish’s business debit and credit cards to make substantial personal purchases, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Matt Boswell, the assistant director of human resources for the Archdiocese of Seattle, told Clark County sheriff’s detectives that Perez was assigned to the St. John parish in July 2003. He was transferred in July 2014 to a parish in Renton, the affidavit said.

After Perez left, a bookkeeper for St. John, Lorrie Conway, raised concerns about Perez’s financial practices. The Archdiocese of Seattle commissioned a forensic accountant to conduct the parish’s annual audit and concluded that the parish had lost more than $50,000 because of Perez’s misuse of funds, court records show.

Conway told detectives that she began working for St. John at about the same time Perez did, but that she didn’t notice irregularities until after he left. She said she later learned that Perez had not followed the protocol for collecting and securing offerings, specifically for the Spanish Mass, which is the parish’s largest Mass, according to court documents.

Perez used the parish’s credit card, Conway said, to pay for meals and a trip to visit his father in California, despite receiving a stipend for meals. She said she also had suspicions that Perez stole fees or donations for baptisms and weddings because after he left, there was a significant increase in the revenue generated from those ceremonies, court records said.

The Rev. Tom Belleque, the parish’s current priest, said Perez was “double dipping,” according to the affidavit. Perez had control of the parish’s checking account, Belleque said, and would pay himself for performing weddings, funerals and other ceremonies. He would also collect cash fees or donations and keep them, court documents said.

Belleque also told detectives that since he’s lived at the rectory, there have been fliers delivered from casinos addressed to Perez, court records said.

After looking into the archdiocese’s concerns, Tiffany Couch of Acuity Forensics found an estimated loss of $50,050.13 as a result of debit and credit card misuse, skimming of fees paid for baptisms, the loss of a parish vehicle and payments to Perez, according to the affidavit.

Couch said the loss could be greater, however, because of differences in loose cash collected. That estimate is roughly $20,200, court records said. The loss of the vehicle has been determined to be a civil matter.

Upon further investigation, detectives found at least 30 cash deposits to Perez’s personal bank account ranging from $300 to $5,000, for a total of $56,747 during the same time frame, court records show.

During his Tuesday hearing, Perez appeared out of custody with his Vancouver attorney, Mark Muenster, and said he is now living in Seattle.

Judge Derek Vanderwood granted Perez supervised release and set his trial for June 27.

Greg Magnoni, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seattle, said Tuesday that Perez is no longer assigned to a parish “given the situation and seriousness.” He said the archbishop has asked Perez to fulfill certain requirements but could not elaborate, citing personnel matters. Perez was placed on administrative leave Dec. 5, 2014, he said.

Perez became an ordained priest in 2002, Magnoni said, and his first pastorship was at St. John.

Magnoni said it’s routine to have an audit performed when one pastor leaves and another comes in. The archdiocese is exploring the possibility of restitution, he said.