Man pleads not guilty in theft from church

Staff report

COLUMBIANA

An East Liverpool man accused of stealing from his church faced Columbiana County Judge Scott A. Washam and pleaded not guilty to a felony count of theft, Vindicator news partner 21 WFMJ-TV reported.

William McGraw, 40, is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from First United Methodist Church in Columbiana.

“The church noticed it when they got a call from Best Buy asking them about a printer that they had supposedly bought,” said Columbiana Police Chief Tim Gladis. “But they hadn’t bought a printer so they started looking into that and realized that there was money being diverted that wasn’t being used for church purposes.”

McGraw served as the church treasurer between January 2012 and July 2014.