Ex-Charities Director Gives Up; D.A. Report Names Cash Recipient

The former director of Catholic Charities of Orange County, sought on charges of embezzling $43,000 from the group, surrendered Tuesday as allegations surfaced that he had impersonated a priest and gave most of the missing money to an emotionally troubled 19-year-old man.

Adair Allen Simmons, 37, returned voluntarily from Florida Monday night and was arraigned Tuesday in Orange County Municipal Court. Simmons was known as “Brother Andrew” in Orange County, where he told church officials he was trying to found a religious order called the “Franciscan Brothers of Mary, Queen of Peace.”

Simmons pleaded not guilty to one count of embezzlement and replied with a terse yes or no to the judge’s procedural questions. Simmons, who was released on $10,000 bail, declined comment after the hearing.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew R. Gale told the judge that Simmons rose from a low-level employee of Catholic Charities to become the organization’s director. Using several checking accounts, Gale said, Simmons embezzled the $43,000 between January and July of 1986. Simmons resigned on Dec. 18 after being confronted by church officials about the missing money.

According to a report detailing the criminal investigation by the district attorney’s office, the alleged embezzlement stemmed from Simmons’ “professional and social” relationship with the 19-year-old man, whose name is being withheld by The Times because authorities said he has not been charged with any crime.

According to the document, the case began when the younger man came to Catholic Charities in February of 1985 with what the report termed “emotional problems.” At that time, Simmons was working as an administrator with the organization and “was involved in the counseling of individuals with mental or emotional problems.”

Simmons had been hired in November of 1984 by Catholic Charities’ lay director on the strength of his resume, which listed two master’s degrees--in social work and education--and extensive experience in administration. However, the report said the lay director “did not check on the background and experience listed on the resume.”

Although not part of a recognized order, Simmons “wore a Roman collar and a black suit that resembled a priest’s,” the report said.

Simmons, “representing himself as a priest,” according to the report, “maintained a relationship both professional and social” with the young man. No reports of sexual intimacy with the young man were contained in the document.

Simmons said Mass at a small chapel in his residence and would hear the young man’s confession, the report says, telling the young man “that he was going to be made a monsignor in Rome and made plans to take” him to the ceremony. Later he told the young man that when the bishop of Orange died, “Simmons would be his successor,” the report said.

During this time, Simmons was appointed executive director of Catholic Charities. In his new position, according to the report, he had authority to write checks on three separate accounts maintained by the organization, including an emergency account that required only Simmons’ signature.

“Between January, 1986, and July, 1986, Simmons began to write checks on the emergency account to the benefit of” the young man “and himself,” the report said.

Among the report’s list of 15 Catholic Charities checks allegedly drafted illegally by Simmons are three made out to the young man totaling $2,000; two totaling $2,300 to the University of Southern California for the young man’s tuition; one to International Business Machines for a computer for the young man; one for $17,930 for a new Toyota Celica convertible for the young man, and two more checks totaling almost $7,500 for a June, 1986, cruise that Simmons took with the young man.

Besides the checks written to the young man or for gifts for him, the report said, Simmons “gave him Catholic Charities money directly” and gave him two credit cards that were billed to the organization.

In August, 1986, James Cranham, a former controller for Catholic Charities, was the first to alert church officials, who began an internal investigation and commissioned an audit, the report said.

When first confronted, Simmons maintained that he had reimbursed Catholic Charities for the expenses with his own checks and that of his religious order. However, photocopies that Simmons supplied of personal checks and cancellations proved to be false, the report said.

‘Phony’ Bank Markings

“The checks supplied by Simmons had never been cashed and the bank markings on the rear of the checks were phony,” the report stated. Simmons had made photocopies matching the front of his personal and Franciscan Brothers checks with the backs of already cashed Catholic Charities checks to show that the checks he wrote as reimbursement had been cashed, according to the report.

On Dec. 15, the report said, “Simmons attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills and was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital. On Dec. 18, Simmons resigned as executive director, after being confronted by” a church official.

On the day of the suicide attempt, Sister Kristan Schlicte was appointed acting director of Catholic Charities. In Simmons’ office she found business cards identifying him as “Father Allen Andrew,” a designation reserved for priests.

When she checked with the five employers he listed on his resume, the report said, she found that Simmons “had been dismissed from four of them for forgery, theft, causing havoc among his staff, mismanagement and a battery of other reasons.”

Schlicte also found that Simmons had taken a teaching credential from a nun “and substituted his own name on the credential.”

Of the three college degrees listed on Simmons’ resume, Schlicte determined that two of the institutions had no record of his attendance and a third showed that he attended for two quarters but did not earn the BA degree he listed, according to the report.

On Dec. 19, Simmons met with Auxiliary Bishop John Steinbock and the chancellor of the diocese and “admitted use of Catholic Charities funds for his own non-business-related expenses,” according to the report. On Jan. 15, church officials asked the Orange County district attorney’s office to investigate.

On Monday, Dorena Middleton, director of social services at La Habra Community Hospital, said Simmons was hired in January as a licensed clinical social worker. But when she was “unable to verify” his credential and confronted him, Middleton said, “he resigned” after two weeks on the job.

Bishop Norman F. McFarland, the newly installed bishop of the diocese, said Tuesday that Simmons’ appointment was probably “just a slip-up. If this was typical, there should be a tightening up” at Catholic Charities. He said that “a mistake was made” in appointing Simmons without a background check and that “more care should have been taken . . . there are shysters around.”

Simmons’ attorney sought a reduction in the $50,000 bail set when an arrest warrant was issued last Thursday.

“He wants to be here,” said Lloyd L. Freeberg, Simmons’ lawyer, who pointed out that his client had returned voluntarily from Florida, where he was attending a seminar. “He wants to resolve this matter.”

The prosecutor agreed and told the judge that Simmons “has been cooperative up to this point.”

A preliminary hearing was set for April 30.