More than $63,000 in cash was found in the ceiling of a priest who is an embezzlement suspect in a Michigan case, WILX-TV reported Wednesday.
Michigan State Police discovered $63,392 in cash in the basement ceiling tiles of Rev. Jonathan Wehrle's home in the Lansing suburb of Williamston while executing a search warrant, the television station said.
Wehrle, 67, a longtime priest at St. Martha Parish in Okemos, Michigan, was home at the time authorities searched the home, WILX-TV said. He has been charged with six counts of embezzlement over $100,000 or more and is scheduled for a pretrial conference on Aug. 2, the television station noted.
"A majority of the cash seized was in $2,000 bundles of $20 bills with paper cash bands that were stamped: For Deposit Only- St. Martha Parish and School," Michigan State Police said in a statement, according to WILX-TV.
Authorities have accused Wehrle of stealing at least $5 million dollars from the church, using the money to build a million dollar home for himself, the television station said. The six-bedroom, 12-bathroom, 10-acre home reportedly has a $45,000 indoor pool, nearly $55,000 in stained glass windows and more than $134,000 done on landscaping.
The Lansing State Journal said more than $1.1 million in assets has been seized in connection with the investigation, according to police. Wehrle is expected to go on trial Aug. 13 in Ingham County Circuit Court, accused of using money from the church to pay for his lavish 11,000-square-foot home, the newspaper said.
An insurance carrier for the Catholic Diocese of Lansing has filed a civil lawsuit against Wehrle after doling out nearly $3 million in damages, according to the Lansing State Journal.
The priest has been trying to raise $300,000 for his legal defense in a letter sent on his behalf by Opus Bono, a Lapeer County-based charity that raises money to help priests, the newspaper said.
"For Father Wehrle, this is quite literally an apocalyptic moment," the Opus Bono letter said, according to Michigan Public Radio. "He is unable to pay his legal team for a competent defense, and is now faced with the horrifying reality that, without the best defense possible, he will live the remainder of his years in state prison. Father Wehrle gets one chance at this; if he does not raise the cost of the legal fees now, he will lose his opportunity for justice, and for his freedom."
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