Jurors Begin Deliberations in Piroli Trial : Court: Panel hears defense say priest was framed. Prosecution says he took money from Simi Valley and Saticoy churches.

After six weeks of often conflicting testimony, jurors began deliberating late Tuesday over whether Father David Dean Piroli embezzled $60,000 in collection money from two Ventura County churches.

During closing arguments Tuesday, the jurors heard the prosecution allege Piroli was a cocaine-using thief and the defense argue that he was just an innocent priest who had been framed by his larcenous pastor.

Now the jury of 10 women and two men must decide whether Piroli, a 37-year-old Roman Catholic priest with eight years in the clergy, took his parishioners’ money from St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley and Sacred Heart Church in Saticoy.

Piroli is charged with two counts of embezzlement. He also faces a special allegation that could increase his sentence upon conviction if jurors find him guilty of taking an amount of money more than $50,000 from St. Peter Claver.

Piroli testified he never took any church money.

His defense rests on his lawyer’s claim that Father James McKeon took the money and may have planted it in Piroli’s rooms with help from church secretary Eileen Slavin, attorney Richard Beada said Tuesday in closing arguments.

“These two were dear friends, and maybe at one point became dear conspirators,” Beada told jurors. Later he said, “Father David was set up.”

Beada alleged that McKeon was skimming thousands of dollars from the parish. The lawyer pointed to McKeon’s own private ledger, which the elder pastor testified he used to keep track of collection money that he spent on church expenses and gifts to the poor.

Beada said the book shows McKeon spent $120,000 over a period of about 10 years, and the lawyer pointed to certain entries in the mid-1980s, before Piroli’s arrival.

These pages, Beada told jurors, showed there were several six-week periods in which McKeon was spending about $700 on meals and more than $1,000 on weekend pay for Dorothy Meyer, the elderly parish maid.

Beada argued that McKeon actually spent the money on himself. “Quite a nice little slush fund,” he added.

But these expenses fell sharply in McKeon’s ledger after Piroli’s arrival in July, 1990, which coincided with the start of the recession, Beada told jurors.

“There is evidence that Father Jim was using a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, and something terrible went South on him, namely the economy of the United States,” Beada theorized. “Things got bad economically, there was no more money for Father Jim, so he had to change what he was doing.”

McKeon testified during trial that he always told the church’s volunteer money counters when he was taking money out of collections for church expenses, and that he logged each of the expenses in the ledger, calling it his “little black book.”

Outside court, McKeon has declined to comment on the allegation that he was taking church money for himself. But the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has vehemently denied it.

Anyone could have planted money in Piroli’s rooms, which were unlocked, and his church car, for which employees had an extra set of keys, Beada said, telling jurors the case was based on circumstantial evidence.

He also argued that no one would be stupid enough to leave matchboxes containing trace amounts of cocaine in his top desk drawer where anyone could find it, as Piroli was alleged to have done.

Given a chance to rebut Beada, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Peace acknowledged the case is indeed circumstantial.

But she told jurors that the defense’s allegations of a frame-up are ridiculous.

Peace called the theory preposterous that church employees put money into Piroli’s Chevrolet Lumina and then phoned the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Division and told them to stop the car.

“The defense attorney has tried Father McKeon and said it was a Ponzi scheme and he’s been stealing for 20 years,” Peace said. “Just suppose that was true. Does that have anything to do with the fact that someone saw Father Piroli with his hand in the collection basket? That he has all that money down in his car in L.A.? That he has cocaine in his car, in his office?”

The money found in Piroli’s bedroom and office is “an essential element of the crime,” Peace said. She also reminded jurors that church officials who counted the cash found many bills still folded into paper airplanes as children do before dropping donations into the collection basket.

Piroli remains free on $100,000 bond posted by some of his former parishioners.