Witnesses weigh in on fund uses by Armstrong

DENVER - An ecclesiastical court could decide as soon as today whether to defrock the Rev. Donald Armstrong over charges that he stole nearly $400,000 while pastor of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s in Colorado Springs.

Neither Armstrong nor his attorney attended a Tuesdaymorning trial at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Denver. A spokesman for Armstrong’s new church, Grace CANA, said the court holds no power over Armstrong because he has already left the Episcopal Church.

What the pastor missed was the testimony of two witnesses, one of whom spelled out how Armstrong diverted money from parish accounts to pay for the college education of his son and daughter, as well as for things such as cell phones and car repairs. The other witness testified that a trust fund from which Armstrong took the college money could not legally have been used for such a purpose.

Hal Haddon and Ty Gee, serving as attorneys for the standing committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, asked the court to recommend the maximum sentence and revoke Armstrong’s standing as an ordained Episcopal minister.

“The day for ecclesiastical judgment for Father Armstrong has come,” Gee told the five-person court comprising clergy and lay church members. “Contrary to Father Armstrong’s public statements, the only personal agenda in these ecclesiastical proceedings is his own, to escape accountability for his canonical offenses.”

The diocese began investigating reports of theft and fraud involving Armstrong last year and inhibited him, essentially placing him on administrative leave, in December. The conservative Armstrong called the investigation a witch hunt by an increasingly liberal church, and a majority of the members of the church’s vestry board voted in March to break away from the denomination and join with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

Evidence offered Tuesday painted a picture of Armstrong not as a theological rebel, however, but as collection-plate pickpocket.

Sheri Betzer, a certified fraud examiner hired by the diocese, said that after going through accounting records from 1997 to 2006, she concluded that Armstrong diverted $261,703 from church funds to his children’s college-related expenses. Much of that came from the Clarice C. Bowton Trust, a 28-year-old account left by a parishioner who insisted the funds go to single Episcopalians studying to become ministers in the church.

Armstrong took another $110,920 for his family’s personal expenses, charging it to Grace Church under the heading of “other clergy benefits,” Betzer testified. Armstrong received another $81,589 in illegal loans that he did not pay back and took about $92,000 from other sources without reporting it as income to the Internal Revenue Service, Betzer said.

Haddon said he believes the IRS has opened a criminal investigation into the matter. An IRS spokeswoman said that she could not comment, and Armstrong spokesman Alan Crippen said that no one from the federal agency had contacted Armstrong.

Haddon then played the video deposition of Karl Ross, a Colorado Springs attorney who set up the Bowton Trust and has served since its inception on the board that distributes the scholarship money. Trust bylaws strictly forbid the money from going to anyone, such as Armstrong’s kids, who are studying subjects outside the ministry, and they also forbid the church from using the money at its whim without approval of the trust board, as it appears to have done, Ross said.

Crippen charged in a phone interview that the diocese refused to cooperate with Grace Church’s bookkeepers in the investigation and appeared to have drawn its conclusion before receiving any evidence. The vestry board of the breakaway Grace CANA church opened its own investigation with the cooperation of Armstrong shortly after the schism and expects to have its findings ready next month, he said.

“Everyone here is interested in getting all of these accusations answered,” said Crippen, who added that Armstrong has denied any wrongdoing. “The fact of the matter is there were going to be no answers and no justice in the Diocese of Colorado’s kangaroo court.”

The presiding trial judge, the Rev. Peter Munson of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Boulder, said he expects the court to release a judgment this week. Both sides then will have 30 days to address the matter before the court reconvenes to issue a sentencing recommendation that can be affirmed or lessened by Bishop Robert O’Neill.

The breakaway parish continues to hold services in historic downtown Grace Church while it is involved in a lawsuit with the diocese over who owns that property. This week’s ruling will have no impact on that case.

Parishioners who remained loyal to the diocese are meeting at First Christian Church.