Church Refuses to Press Charges : Simi Valley: Catholic leaders say they want to hear a priest explain why he had $60,000 in his home and car.

Police said Tuesday that Catholic church officials have refused to press theft charges against a Simi Valley priest who had $60,000 cash found in his apartment and parish-owned car after a Hollywood drug arrest.

The staff of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and St. Peter Claver Church have repeatedly ignored police pleas for them to file a criminal complaint against Father David Piroli, said Simi Valley Police Lt. Richard Klamser.

Although Simi Valley police are keeping a file open on the incident, their policy prohibits investigating property crimes for victims who refuse to press charges, Klamser said.

Auxiliary Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann explained, “We wanted to hear (Piroli’s) side of the story first,” despite the fact the bundles of cash found in Piroli’s rooms at the church included church collection envelopes--some torn open.

“It’s a possibility that the money could be his and it’s also possible it could be the church’s,” said Ziemann, who oversees the archdiocese’s churches in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony would have to make the final decision whether to press charges against one of his priests, Ziemann said. The archdiocese has removed Piroli from his post as assistant pastor of the Simi Valley church and expects to name a replacement before the end of July, Ziemann said.

Police from the Hollywood division of the Los Angeles Police Department arrested Piroli on May 29 outside a Sears, Roebuck & Co. store after employees complained of someone loitering outside.

While searching the car, they found two matchboxes containing rock cocaine and two folded dollar bills containing powder cocaine--not enough to warrant pressing charges, said Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Norm Shapiro.

Police also found $10,000 cash in bundles, bags and boxes throughout the car, and a further search of Piroli’s rooms at St. Peter Claver uncovered about $50,000 in small bills, including some church collection envelopes, Ziemann said.

Piroli told police that the money was his, but their arrest report includes no statements from him about the drugs, Klamser said.

On June 3, five days after the pastor, Father James McKeon, bailed Piroli out of jail, Piroli borrowed the church car again. He then disappeared, abandoning the car in a medical center parking lot in Burbank and leaving the church to pay a bail bondsman $5,000 out of the $50,000 from his apartment, Ziemann said.

Church officials said they have received word that Piroli is in Southern California, but he has not told them where he is.

Although a Simi Valley police dog indicated that there were traces of cocaine on some of the money, such traces often are found on cash that is not directly involved in drug arrests, Klamser said.

He said church officials did not know what to do with the remaining $45,000, but agreed to let the Ventura County district attorney’s office hold it pending an audit of the church’s books by the archdiocese, which is continuing.

Although church officials have asked for the money, district attorney’s investigators are trying to learn whether the cash is profit from drugs, church donations or Piroli’s own money, said Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox.

Church officials said Piroli’s monthly salary was only $350 plus room and board.

“They do clearly want this money back,” Fox said. “As far as a formal claim, I indicated to them we’d put that on hold until we can make a better assessment of this case. This is such an atypical case.”

Ziemann said Piroli served uneventful terms as assistant pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Saticoy for four years and then St. Peter Claver for two years before his disappearance. “This is so bizarre, because there is nothing . . . we have no record of any sort of addiction,” he said.

The incident stunned the church congregation of 2,000 in Simi Valley, said Bill Ryan, a member of the parish council. “There are so many people who loved Father Piroli,” Ryan said Tuesday. “It’s unfortunate. We will miss him.”

Ryan said Piroli’s sermons were very articulate and above-average, often focusing on family life and current events.

“He sounded very well-educated, very well-spoken,” Ryan said. “He would attend the parish council meetings, and he always had something constructive to say. The parish is really going to miss him.”

A search of Piroli’s court records shows that he was arrested once before, for shoplifting a sweat shirt from a Sears store in Oxnard in November, 1982, while a student at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo.

Acting as his own attorney, the 26-year-old Piroli pleaded guilty to a petty theft charge and agreed to serve 120 hours in a county work program.