Jury Acquits Simi Priest of Embezzlement

A Simi Valley priest was acquitted Friday of embezzling collection money from his former parish in Ventura, and a mistrial was declared after jurors deadlocked in his favor on a charge of stealing more than $50,000 from another parish.

The verdicts ended the six-week trial of Father David Dean Piroli, 37, whose defense was built on a claim that a senior pastor framed him by planting thousands of dollars in cash in his church car and his rooms at St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley.

Jurors who voted 9 to 3 to acquit Piroli on the Simi Valley charge said they did not necessarily believe that Piroli was set up by Father James McKeon, but they had too many questions about where the cash had come from.

“Yeah!” shouted defense attorney Richard Beada as he and Piroli walked smiling from the courtroom into the arms of parishioners who remained loyal to the priest throughout the sensational trial.

Piroli and Beada said little because of a gag order imposed by Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele that will stay in effect until attorneys meet again April 8 to discuss retrying the priest.

But Piroli rolled his eyes, telling reporters: “You know I’m not sad.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Peace, who had failed to convince jurors that Piroli skimmed money from the collection plate to feed a cocaine habit and buy gifts for a young Mexican man, did not comment either.

Piroli hugged his attorney and his mother, Helen Ferrari.

“I’m very, very happy,” Ferrari said. “I just can’t believe that someone that’s innocent would have to go through all of this.”

The Los Angeles Archdiocese announced that it accepts the verdict acquitting Piroli of stealing money from Sacred Heart Church in Saticoy, but it regrets that the jury deadlocked on the alleged thefts from St. Peter Claver.

“This prolongs what has been a painful episode for the entire Catholic community,” said a written statement issued by Father Gregory Coiro, an Archdiocesan spokesman.

“With complete confidence in the priests, parish staff and parishioners as they focus upon healing after having been so publicly wounded, the Archdiocese categorically rejects allegations the defense made against the character, good name and reputation of Father James McKeon,” Coiro’s statement said.

Asked to comment on Piroli’s charges, McKeon said Friday: “Father Gregory took care of it.”

Asked whether he thought justice was done, McKeon said: “No comment, OK?”

David Patrick Callahan, an attorney for the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the Piroli case, said no one but the jury thought the defense’s theory of a conspiracy by McKeon “had a chance in hell of succeeding.”

“It’s very difficult to catch a thief who has a background in auditing and who knows if you steal cash it’s very hard to get caught,” Callahan said. “My way of thinking was he had scoped out St. Peter Claver Church and figured this was an easy place to scam. And he did it apparently quite well--$60,000 in cash is quite a bit.”

Deacon Richard Hamm of St. Peter Claver said that Piroli should be retried for stealing the church’s money.

“I feel he’s guilty,” Hamm said. “It was all circumstantial, though.”

Before taking a vote, jurors plowed through their notes on every single witness and each piece of evidence, said Randy McDonald, a Newbury Park juror who voted to acquit the priest.

Reasonable doubt pushed them toward acquittal, he said.

McDonald said the case against Piroli might have been stronger if employees of St. Peter Claver had not moved the cash from Piroli’s room to church offices and then to a parishioner’s home after finding it--and if they had not waited 11 days to report the alleged theft to police.

“I’ll tell you, it seemed like a lot of people had their hands in the till,” said McDonald, a Southern California Edison lineman. “A lot of us feel the Catholic Church has to look at how it does business.”

A female juror, who asked not to be identified, added: “It was hard to follow the money.”

The jury forewoman agreed.

“Where the (prosecution) fell through was reasonable doubt,” said the juror, a 48-year-old graduate student, who also asked not to be named. “There were too many people that had access” to collection money.

The three jurors were convinced not by any single piece of evidence, but “based on putting the chain together, the pieces of evidence,” said the forewoman, who declined to say how she voted.

“All the witnesses were telling the truth,” including Piroli, she said. “That’s what made it hard.”

The trial ended with an unusual twist when the deadlocked jurors agreed to deliberate more, then backed out and said they would never be able to agree.

Piroli was arrested on May 29, 1992, when Los Angeles Police Department officers found him and a Mexican national named Israel Palacios sitting in a church car in Hollywood with $10,000 in small bills, trace amounts of cocaine and church collection envelopes.

Five days later, as parishioners allegedly found thousands more in cash in his bedroom and office, Piroli left the country.

The priest testified later that he was driving Palacios to Mexico to help him escape from cocaine addiction in Hollywood.

Juror McDonald said Piroli’s testimony seemed “rehearsed.”

The jury’s final vote Friday on the St. Peter Claver charge was the same as their first vote on Wednesday. And Judge Steele almost sent them back to deliberate further after they sent out three questions Friday.

The first asked whether the police testimony was circumstantial or direct evidence. The second asked whether jurors should consider it an “insinuation” that the police report said the money found in the car was stolen. And the third question asked whether reasonable doubt could hinge on a single piece of evidence supporting the defense’s conspiracy theory.

Judge Steele pronounced the first question unanswerable, said the second question was for the jury to answer, and told them to reread the jury instructions to answer their third question.

With that, the forewoman said the jury was hopelessly deadlocked. Steele arranged to replace a juror who had to be excused and directed them to restart deliberations Monday. Several jurors groaned.

He excused the jury, but two minutes later they sent another note: The answers made no difference, it said, they remained hopelessly deadlocked.

Steele then declared a mistrial.

Times staff writers Daryl Kelley and Peggy Y. Lee and correspondent Julie Fields contributed to this report.

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