Priest Cleared of Embezzling From Parish : Courts: Jurors deadlock on charge that Father David Piroli stole $50,000 from a second church.

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 the assertion that a senior pastor framed him by planting thousands in cash in his church car and in his rooms at St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley.

The jurors, who voted 9 to 3 to acquit Piroli on that charge, said they did not necessarily believe Piroli was set up by Father James McKeon but had too many questions about the origin of the cash.

“Yeah!” shouted defense attorney Richard Beada as he and Piroli walked smiling from the courtroom and into the arms of parishioners who remained loyal to the priest during the 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 to buy gifts for a young Mexican man, did not comment either.

The 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 Father Gregory Coiro, an archdiocesan spokesman, in a written statement. He repeated the archdiocese’s stance condemning the accusations against McKeon.

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

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.”

“My way of thinking was, he had scoped out St. Peter Claver Church and figured this was an easy place to scam,” Callahan said. “And he did it apparently quite well--$60,000 in cash is quite a bit.”

Richard Hamm, deacon of St. Peter Claver, said Piroli should be retried for stealing the money. “I feel he’s guilty,” Hamm said. “It was all circumstantial, though.”

Before taking a vote, jurors plowed through their notes on every 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 St. Peter Claver employees 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 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.”