Secretary Testifies Keys Found in Priest’s Room : Crime: Woman in Piroli theft trial says locks were changed after parishioners counting money made the find.

Simi Valley parishioners counting money found in Father David Dean Piroli’s room turned up a church master key that had been missing for a month, along with about 100 other keys, a church secretary testified Tuesday.

Piroli disappeared that same day--five days after Hollywood police arrested him for embezzlement--and soon thereafter, Father James McKeon ordered all the locks changed at the church, testified secretary Eileen Slavin.

It took two days to replace every lock in the church, rectory and priests’ residence, Slavin told jurors in Ventura County Superior Court.

Parishioners discovered the keys while sorting through thousands of dollars in cash and dozens of collection envelopes, Slavin told jurors in Ventura County Superior Court.

“There was a complete set of Father McKeon’s keys for the church and the rectory and the residence, and a (master) key that had been missing since April, and a spare set of keys for a maroon (church) car that had been missing for months,” Slavin testified.

Slavin also testified out of the jury’s presence that church employees found cigarette rolling papers, traces of marijuana and what appeared to be cocaine residue in matchboxes in the desk drawer in Piroli’s office.

Slavin then was allowed to testify to jurors only about the matchboxes containing white powder, after defense attorney Richard Beada held a long private conference with Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele and Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Peace.

Slavin testified that Piroli’s church-owned car was found in Burbank two weeks after his June 3, 1992, disappearance.

Slavin said she had let some air out of the car’s left rear tire in a failed attempt to stop Piroli from leaving the church. The tire was still partly deflated, and she had to refill it to drive it safely back to Simi Valley, Slavin testified.

Later, Slavin testified she had found a note from her to McKeon in one of the money bags that parishioners had retrieved from Piroli’s rooms.

At times, the church secretary appeared to grow weary under a painstaking cross-examination by defense attorney Richard Beada that lasted nearly five hours.

Beada recalled grand jury testimony in which McKeon had spoken to Slavin after finding money while looking for his keys in Piroli’s room two weeks before the younger priest’s arrest, but she testified she did not remember making the statements before the grand jury.

“Do you recall making the statement to Father McKeon, ‘If you took your keys, why didn’t you take the money?’ ” Beada asked.

“Not in those words,” she said.

“Do you recall saying, ‘What’s he going to do to you?’ ” Beada asked.

“No,” Slavin replied.

” ’ . . . You’re taking stolen money, but he stole from us,’ ” Beada quoted from Slavin’s grand jury testimony. “ ‘You know, take it back.’ You remember making that statement to the grand jury?”

Slavin asked to see the grand jury transcript to refresh her memory, then admitted, “Yes, I said it.”

Questioning went in fits and starts.

Beada repeatedly asked Slavin questions that spurred objections from Peace and warnings from Steele to reword the questions. At one point, Beada began to match Peace’s objections during her questioning by protesting a string of simple questions on the same grounds she had cited during cross-examination.

Asked by Peace late Tuesday whether she saw other matchboxes at the rectory, Slavin sighed, “It seems like I did, but I’m so punchy at this point, I don’t remember.”

Slavin was excused just before 4 p.m. Testimony is scheduled to continue today at 9:30 a.m.