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Thefts from churches result in probation
YOUNGSTOWN
A Canfield woman has been sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to make $25,000 in restitution during that time for stealing from two local Roman Catholic churches, where she had been employed.
On Thursday, Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence on Linda D. Messing, 49, of Russo Drive, who pleaded guilty in February to a bill of information charging her with a pair of fourth-degree felony theft counts.
Messing admitted stealing the money from St. Christine Church in Youngstown and St. Michael’s Church in Canfield.
The judge fined Messing $5,000 on each count, but he suspended all but $500 of each fine, and he made her combined $1,000 payment due within one year.
Judge Evans, however, warned Messing that any violation of her probation could lead to imposition of the entire fines and up to three years in prison.
Judge Evans ordered $14,000 in restitution to St. Christine and $11,000 to St. Michael’s after Nicholas E. Modarelli, an assistant county prosecutor, said the prosecution and defense agreed on those figures, rather than awaiting a lengthy and costly forensic audit of both parishes’ books to determine a more precise figure.
In an examination of bank records, Youngstown police determined the theft at St. Christine on South Schenley Avenue occurred between June 2007 and October 2008.
The Rev. David Rhodes, St. Christine’s pastor, told police an audit of parish finances showed the missing funds.
Messing was in charge of booking events while she was facilities coordinator at St. Michael’s Family Life Center from September 2009 until she was fired in June 2010.
Church authorities found suspicious documents and receipts, said Detective Brian McGivern of the Canfield Police Department.
Messing booked events through several organizations St. Michael’s had no affiliation with, and, on two occasions, she coordinated parties for which the church was never paid, McGivern added.
Messing declined to make any statement at her sentencing, but her lawyer, Ross Smith, described her as “a family woman who made some bad choices,” for which she has accepted responsibility.