2 Parishioners Post $100,000 Bond for Priest
Over the concerns of prosecutors, two women described as parishioners posted a $100,000 bond Wednesday to free a Simi Valley priest jailed on charges of embezzling church money.
Father David Piroli was released from the Ventura County Jail after one of the women put up $10,000 in cash and the other offered her home as collateral.
“We’re very concerned,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Totten. “In our opinion he is a very high flight risk.”
The women declined to identify themselves or comment on the case. Nor would Piroli comment when he walked out of the jail with one of the women late Wednesday.
In a hearing Wednesday morning, Superior Court Judge Allan Steele refused to lower Piroli’s bond because of the chance that he would flee to Mexico. Piroli pleaded innocent to the embezzling charge.
Piroli was an assistant pastor at St. Peter Claver Church when he disappeared June 3, one week after he was arrested in Los Angeles in a church-owned car with a small amount of cocaine and $10,000 in small bills, plus church collection envelopes.
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