The Revs. John Skehan, 81, and Francis “Frank” Guinan, 66, are scheduled for trial, each charged with one count of grand theft over $100,000 – a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Each is accused of pilfering hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Roman Catholic parish they were tapped to grow and inspire, St. Vincent Ferrer in Delray Beach.
Instead, they left the faithful reeling after their arrests by Delray Beach police in 2006. While accused of misappropriating more than $8 million, they are charged with outright stealing far less. Detective Thomas Whatley referred to them at the time as “professional money launderers.”
Assistant State Attorney Preston Mighdoll is expected to present evidence of gambling trips that Guinan made with women to the Bahamas and Las Vegas…
A former female employee of the church, Colleen Head, given immunity by prosecutors, recounted for police the skimming of offertory plates and her wondering how Guinan could afford to live a lavish lifestyle on a priest’s salary, according to the court record. She told them of envelopes stripped of cash in an Easter Sunday collection bag that he handed her.
The current pastor, the Rev. Thomas Skindeleski, said he will reserve any comment on the case until after a court decision. “I will say I have asked people to pray more deeply, to consider more strongly the Lord,” he said
Skehan looks like he had more fun with the money than Guinan.
Now if they were a politically connected brokerage house or bank, they could steal billions and billions and get away with it.
Buying good dentistry, obviously never occurred to them.
I thought this was a before and after picture.
Silly Catholic priests, don’t they know that they calling in life is fondling little boys? They should leave things like money laundering to the experts at the Evangelical churches.
Another day in the religious community. When will the followers see religion for what it is… a giant legalized scam.
Put them in jail for life which should take too many years unless the younger man lives as long as the older.
It took so long to discover their crime simply because the church leadership is too busy with their own scams.
In fairness, if they weren’t scamming the church, they would be scamming someone else.
Couldn’t they just steal from the plate like other guys?
Skehan looks like he had more fun with the money than Guinan.
We can’t see what/who is under those robes he’s wearing…
I guess I should have RTFA, he was skimming the plate.
So when are they finally going to take down the televangalists? Wait, I forget, they were stealing from the Catholic robber barons and not defrauding millions of their life savings, wait, damn that’s investment bankers.
If you steal from a thief is that really a “crime”?
Yeah, send that Offering Plate around again for the Legal Defense Fund !!! Not !!!
deowll said:
Put them in jail for life which should take too many years unless the younger man lives as long as the older.
Why should the tax payers have to feed them for life? Let the church sustain them: put them under house arrest in a monastery (does this qualify as “monastery arrest”?)