The exception extends to religiously affiliated institutions when they fire employees who serve in a religious capacity akin to that of a minister. Recap: Court Weighs Whether Religious Schools Can Fire Lay Workers, Listen Live: Supreme Court Arguments Schedule, Top 5 Moments From The Supreme Court's 1st Week Of Livestreaming Arguments, Fervor Vs Compromise At Supreme Court Birth Control Arguments, Supreme Court Arguments A Tech Success, But Format Strangles Usual Give-And-Take, Supreme Court Considers Anti-Prostitution Pledge In HIV/AIDS Funding Case. She doesn't have any money. I, for one, absolutely love this move. ", Church says nuns embezzled from SoCal school to cover Vegas gambling tripswww.youtube.com. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged Tuesday with wire fraud and money laundering for ripping off St. James Catholic School for a period of 10 years ending in September 2018, according to . She was also entrusted with overseeing the St. James Covenant Account, a savings account that funded the living expenses of the nuns who worked at the school, the indictment against her states. In a statement to The Washington Post, Kreupers lawyers said she is very remorseful and sorry for any harm she has caused. If these teachers are exempt, he adds, then millions of employees are automatically exempt from laws enacted by Congress to protect workers, simply because they perform some duty their employer considers religious. Kreuper originally pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering back in 2021. But somewhere along the line, you just ran completely off the road, and I think you understand that. However, the church chose not to press charges against the two nuns. On Monday night, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told parents and alumni at a meeting that Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, described as best friends, took around $500,000 from St . Kreuper retired as principal of St. James' Catholic School in 2018, after holding that position for 28 years. When first confronted, Mr Kumar said, the nun claimed she "did it in part because she believes priests get paid better than nuns". This is because, as part of the plea deal, the prosecutors have agreed to recommend to the court an "offense level" of 25 for Kreuper's crimes, and will further advise the court to reduce that to 23, or even 22. Nuns should realize that just by living their lives and living the way they do and treating people the way they do, they affect children for the rest of their lives, the judge said, according to the Los Angeles Times. I was wrong, and Im profoundly sorry for the pain and suffering Ive caused so many people., Despite her vow of poverty, nun stole more than $835,000 from a Catholic school, prosecutors said. We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips. Since 2014, The Marshall Project has been curating some of the best criminal justice reporting from around the web. On. It is "telling," in these cases, he says, that the "teachers did not even have to be Catholic to have these jobs.". })(); Adriana Kuch attackers identified on social media in planned attack, St Louis execution shooting of homeless man: arrest made, Karen calls cops on black men shovelling snow for free outsider her home, Idaho murder suspect had multiple photos of female victim on phone, Torrance Catholic school nuns steal $500K for gambling habit- church resists charges. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering on Tuesday and has agreed to a plea deal, according to a release from the U.S. attorneys office for the Central District of California. Apparently, the Vegas trips were common knowledge, but the nuns explained that the gambling excursions were gifts from a rich uncle. She claimed that the salary differential between nuns and priests meant she was owed this money, which is inconsistent with the vow of poverty she took.. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images). 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. His . Instead of sitting in the Supreme Court chamber, though, Biel, like the rest of us, will be at home listening. "As soon as she was confronted she accepted full responsibility for what she had done and she has cooperated completely with law enforcement and the Archdiocese,the pair said in a joint statement. All they needed to do was get through the school year. A now-retired nun has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $800,000 from the St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, from 2008 to 2018, the last decade of her 28-year tenure as principal of the institution. ", "Just as teaching science out of a fifth-grade textbook doesn't make them scientists, teaching religion for 40 minutes a day out of a workbook doesn't make them ministers," he says. All rights reserved. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering after she admitted to investigators that she embezzled hundreds of thousands of. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, a former principal at St James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used tuition fees and donations to subsidize casino gambling expenses and credit card. She is set to be arraigned in court on July 1. When Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper was 18 years old, she vowed to dedicate her life to the education of children and helping those in need. Maryland man, 52, sues bar over ban cause he was old Missouri daughter secretly donates kidney to ailing dad. It wasnt until the house of cards came crashing down that she realized what she had done and started to go therapy, where she realized this addiction was a contributing factor. Kreuper stole the funds over the course of ten years, ending in 2018. Other parents remarked it was well-known that Kreuper and Chang traveled often and went gambling, with the two women claiming they were gifted the trips by a rich relative. As outlined in her plea agreement, beginning in 2008, Kreuper began depositing tuition checks and donations into the school's account and then diverted the money into the covenant account. Mary Margaret Kreuper, a nun who admitted stealing more than $800,000 from St. James Catholic School in Torrance when she was its principal, spent some of the money on trips to Las Vegas and. She must give up the right to control or benefit from personal property and commits herself to live interdependently within a community. Kreuper as the schools principal, handled all tuition payments, with the sister depositing checks into a separate account that she and Chang had access to. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet confirm that today the judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles has sentenced our Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, CSJ to one year and one day in federal prison followed by two years' supervised release. During his sentencing, Wright, a 2007 appointee under President George W. Bush, praised Kreuper for her tenure as one heck of a teacher at the school. The DOJ noted that Kreuper had diverted the school funds to pay for expenses that the order [of nuns] would not have approved. Among the expenses Kreuper accrued were those from casinos and credit card charges. According to prosecutors, Kreuper had stolen whats estimated to have been the tuition for 14 students at the K-8 school in funds that were intended to further the students education, not fund [Kreupers] lifestyle., When confronted, the defendant admitted to stealing the money, Kumar said. Claiming mental illness at her age is a play for probation or the ability to serve her sentence at home. She spent the next 59 years of her life dedicated to the church, they said. A spokesperson with St. James did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Though he acknowledges that the teachers taught religion from a workbook about three hours a week, Fisher says these teachers were "primarily lay employees" teaching "secular subjects. He had planned to be in Washington for Monday's argument. 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79,of Los Angeles, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, She defrauded St. James Catholic Schoolover a period of 10 years, As principal, Kreuper had been in charge of the school's credit union account, where she was meant to deposit cash and checks from tuition, fees and donations, Also implicated in the scheme was Lana Chang, who worked as a teacher at St. James before becoming vice principal, Nun, 79, STOLE $835,000 from Catholic school over 10 years to fund her gambling trips, Teenage boy shot friend, 15, in face with his grandad's shotgun after 'being repeatedly humiliated and bullied by him', Apple pie could be CANCELED after writer links treat to genocide and cultural appropriation, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have 'done nothing but seek publicity' since leaving UK, former Palace aide claims, Woman, 21, records terrifying moment Uber driver relentlessly pesters her for sex despite her telling him 'no', Inside Bidens 30million G7 ring of steel with warships, The Beast & 400 Secret Service agents watching his every move, Murder probe scuppered after alligator makes off with dead body found floating in river, JBSA Lackland put on lockdown after shooting outside Air Force base in San Antonio. Court documents show that she also oversaw the St. James Convent Account, a savings account that funded the living expenses of the nuns who worked at the school. She is looking forward to getting on with life and will get treatment for her gambling addiction, he said. They added that "later in her life, she has been suffering from a mental illness that clouded her judgment and caused her to do something that she otherwise would not have done.. But this week, prosecutors said Sister Mary Margaret, 79, had agreed to plead guilty to stealing more than. Each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 40 years behind bars. There is another, and rather rich, twist to one of the cases before the court Monday. She is expected to report to prison by June, Byrne said, and will be released in 2023. I wanted them to see me," he says "and I just pray that the justices see the right way.". He argued that while the money she stole might have affected the schools funding, her actions didnt decrease the quality of education students received at St. James. The two announced their retirement at the same time and were on their way out in 2018. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty. At Monday's argument, Stanford law professor Jeff Fisher, who is representing the teachers, will tell the justices that by the terms of the teachers' contracts and the school handbooks, these teachers were hired to teach academic subjects. His wife, he said, drove into their driveway "in tears bawling hysterically. Kristen Biel would return to teaching elsewhere while fighting her case in court, but in June 2019, she died. To know that she had been taking money from my parents and my peers parents the whole time I was there is extremely shocking, and it sways me away from the Catholic Church, Garunkstis said. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who worked as the school principal for 28 years, and Sister Lana Chang, a teacher at the school for 20 years, reportedly bilked the funds over a period of at least a . She was the principal and had been colluding with longtime teacher Sister Lana Chang on the operation, per the Daily Breeze. All rights reserved. However, around the same time, a family at the school asked for an old check they had written to St. James. She faces up to 40 years in federal prison, but is claiming mental illness. The judge settled on a prison sentence of one year and a day and also ordered Kreuper to pay back the money she had stolen from the school. The St. James Catholic Church school in Torrance, California, on February 7, 2022. "These teachers taught the Catholic faith to these kids more than the parish priest," putting them squarely within the so-called ministerial exception, he says. Kreuper signed the plea agreement, which Snopes has obtained and which can be read in full here, on June 2, 2021. Julija Garunkstis, a St. James mother who attended the school between 2005 and 2014, said Kreuper had shaken her faith. James School, before tapping the funds for personal use. At least, thats where they caught her. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang were seen as two of the strictest nuns at St James Catholic School in Torrance, California. The sisters, described as best friends, both retired earlier this year. When the fraudulent behavior first came to light, the order was deeply disappointed and offered to repay the lost funds only believed to be $500,000 at the time. You can be proud of that, he said. She just enjoyed gambling, he said. The schools denied that Morrissey-Berru and Biel were fired for discriminatory reasons. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, admitted stealing the money from St James Catholic School in the L.A. suburb of Torrance, where she was school principal for nearly 30 years. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in July to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges. This article was published more than1 year ago. The principal allegedly withheld some of the checks and deposited them into the other account, endorsing the back with a stamp that read, St. When this was going on, she was not nearly as old. Despite the ongoing thefts, financial statements revealed the church continuing to operate in the black as the two sisters clandestinely plowed through church funds. She claimed that she was fired after she told her superior, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I have sinned, Ive broken the law and I have no excuses, Kreuper said at the sentencing over Zoom. According to Newstalk.com, the school indicated in a letter to parents at the time that they did not want to pursue criminal charges against the duo, after they both expressed "desire and inten[t] to make complete restitution to St. James School.". At the time, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet imposed restrictions on the two women, writing in a news release that: "The two Sisters are removed from all public ministry. Five of the nine justices hearing Monday's case attended Catholic secondary schools, and several of them have sent their children to parochial schools as well. Officials pointed out that Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty as a nun. It's very disturbing. But the court's eventual decision could reach beyond teachers, affecting the lives of millions of other employees who work for religiously affiliated institutions. For more information about our use of cookies, our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information generally, and any rights you may have to access, delete, or opt out of the sale of your personal information, please view our, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The 79-year-old former nun pleaded guilty to federal charges for stealing more than $800,000 from St. James Catholic School earlier this month. But. News of the indiscretions led to the archdiocese and the church announcing they wouldnt file criminal charges against the nuns after apologizing for their actions. James Convent, not St. American sister stole money from accounts she controlled as a headteacher and used it to pay off credit card charges and "large gambling expenses incurred at casinos". Trust shouldnt be broken like that., Others, such as Kevin Kearns, whose son had gone to the school, said the nun had put the students and parents above everything else., The church tells us to forgive those who have trespassed against us, Kearns said. Similar articles were published by the Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and Unilad.co.uk. Kreuper, who took vows of poverty at age 18 and spent 59 years in the religious order, said in her plea agreement that she had begun diverting money from the schools tuition and donation account to a savings account that funded the living expenses of the nuns who worked at the school and then used some of the money herself. "I wanted to face them. Many parents were outraged with the initial decision not to press charges, with some remarking that if the nuns were lay people, they would certainly be in jail according to the presstelegram. He said he could not bring himself to judge Kreuper solely on "the worst thing that she's done in her life", the LA Times said. The purpose is to protect leaders of the faith, and their religions, from interference by the government. These nuns took a vow of poverty and said, Oh no, weve got a rich uncle, parent Jack Alexander said. The Archdiocese appears to have now changed course-with ABC Newsreporting a criminal case may now be in the works following deepening investigations. Kreuper was in charge of the schools credit union account, where she was meant to deposit cash and checks from tuition, fees and donations. Shes very, very remorseful and very ashamed, he said. "https:" : "http:") + '//www.zergnet.com/zerg.js?id=47402'; Monday's case, however, does not involve trained and ordained ministers of the faith. We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips, we do know they had a pattern of going to casinos, and the reality is, they used the account as their personal account, Marge Graf, an attorney representing St. James, told a group of parents at a meeting in 2018. Kreuper, who pleaded guilty last summer to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II to pay more than $825,000 in restitution. Around the same time, a St. James parent asked question at a school meeting about an old tuition check that had an endorsement on the back of check that did not line up with the schools primary account, the prosecutor said. For more information about our use of cookies, our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information generally, and any rights you may have to access, delete, or opt out of the sale of your personal information, please view our Privacy Policy. 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