Pa. church member accused of stealing $225K from congregation
A longtime member of a Pennsylvania church has been accused of stealing approximately $225,000 from the house of worship over the course of several years.
William Reed, a 73-year-old who had worked at St. John Lutheran Church of Carnegie for 14 years, was recently arrested and charged by Allegheny County police, reported WPXI-TV Pittsburgh on Monday.
According to the criminal complaint, police say church board members had noticed small accounting issues over the years while Reed worked as the church’s treasurer.
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When the church had implemented a new accounting system in 2022 that revealed more discrepancies, Reed refused to hand over any financial documentation when requested, reported WPXI.
Authorities later discovered around 800 pages of data showing payments from the church to a personal American Express account that was owned by William Reed, totaling $224,000.
According to the complaint against Reed, the accused confessed to two church board members to stealing the church fund back in May, then later on allegedly offered to pay the church $20,000 if “we could make this go away.”
Reed's attorney told the Pittsburgh-based KDKA-TV that his client turned himself in to authorities on Monday and is presently out on $5,000 unsecured bail. He also said that he was reviewing the complaint.
St. John Lutheran Church Board President Rob Windhorst told KDKA that he was saddened by the news, as he had known Reed for his whole life, as the Reed family had longstanding ties to the congregation.
“It's very unfortunate for the church that somebody that was so respected and trusted has violated that trust with our church,” said Windhorst. “We had some ideas that there were some discrepancies. As we began to dig into them, we found out that the discrepancies were larger and larger.”
“All of the good works that his family has done for decades is now going to be tarnished by what he's done here. … Our church is praying for everybody in the congregation and the Reeds as well.”
According to a 2017 study by Lifeway Research, nearly 10% of Protestant pastors had said their church witnessed someone embezzle funds, with churches that have 250 or more members being slightly more likely than smaller churches to say this has occurred.
"Churches run on trust — but they also know people are imperfect and can be tempted," stated Lifeway Executive Director Scott McConnell, as quoted in the 2017 report. "That's why safeguarding a church's finances is an important part of ministry."
