Local News
Church funds misused; authorities focusing on person of interest
By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
FRONTENAC, Kan. — Authorities executing a search warrant Thursday seized financial documents and business records in connection with an investigation into allegations of misuse of church funds by an individual other than the priest, Crawford County Sheriff Sandy Horton said Friday.
Members of the Sheriff’s Department, the Kansas Bureau of Investigations and the FBI served the warrant at the business office of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 100 S. Cherokee St., in Frontenac, Horton said.
No one is expected to be taken into custody yet, but Horton said the investigation points to thousands of dollars in church funds being misused.
“We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars at this point,” the sheriff said. “We want parishioners and the community to know that there are serious financial problems that need to be addressed.”
Horton said his office started the investigation more than 10 months ago, and brought in the other agencies to assist with gathering evidence. He said the FBI agents helped remove financial records from the church computers, without having to remove the equipment itself.
“We didn’t want to shut down legitimate church operations,” he said.
Horton said the church’s priest, the Rev. Robert McElwee, and the Catholic Diocese of Wichita were cooperating with the investigation. McElwee is not a suspect in the investigation, he said.
Horton said a person of interest has been identified in the probe, but has not been arrested or formally charged with a crime.
“We are focusing on one individual,” the sheriff said. “This is way more than a person of interest. This is the entire focus of the investigation at this point.”
McElwee did not return a message left on his cell phone Friday afternoon. A spokesman for the Wichita diocese said church officials were unaware of any problems with Sacred Heart’s finances, before hearing from authorities Thursday.
“We do have processes in place to make sure funds are handled properly,” said Fred Solis, director of communications for the diocese. “Once we have a better understanding of what happened, we’ll look at what policies we need to improve upon in the future.”
Parish makeup
Fred Solis, director of communications for the diocese, said about 400 families attend Sacred Heart, and that the funds in question may have been intended to support church operations and ministerial work.
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