Piroli Sues L. A. Catholic Archdiocese : Litigation: The suspended priest alleges that the church has engaged in malicious prosecution and defamation.

Claiming that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles went out of its way to help prosecute him, Father David Dean Piroli--as promised--sued the church Tuesday for malicious prosecution and defamation.

Piroli said that after a Ventura County jury acquitted him of embezzlement and deadlocked on a grand theft charge, church representatives have continued to attack him in the press.

“No one--not even the Holy Father himself--should put him or herself above the law,” Piroli said at a news conference held across from the archdiocese headquarters in Los Angeles.

The suspended priest accused the archdiocese of concealing evidence that could have proved his innocence to charges that he stole more than $50,000 from his former parishes in Simi Valley and Saticoy.

Archdiocesan officials declined to respond to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.

“The archdiocese will comment at the appropriate place and time, which will probably be in court,” spokeswoman Brenda Anaya-Eckdahl said.

Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, is the latest development in Piroli’s nearly two-year legal fight, which began on May 29, 1992, when Los Angeles police found him and a Mexican national sitting in a church-owned car in Hollywood.

In the car, police also found $10,000 in small bills, trace amounts of cocaine and church collection envelopes. Five days later, parishioners said they found more money stashed in Piroli’s Simi Valley bedroom and office.

Los Angeles County authorities declined to prosecute him.

But Ventura County prosecutors filed a charge of grand theft in connection with the more than $50,000 they accused him of stealing from St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley. A jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal on the criminal count a month ago.

Prosecutors also filed a charge of embezzlement related to a small amount of money Piroli was accused of taking from Sacred Heart Church in Saticoy, where he was previously assistant pastor. The same jury acquitted him of that charge.

During his six-week trial, Piroli maintained that a senior pastor framed him by planting much of the money found in Piroli’s rooms at the Simi Valley church and in the car.

Oxnard attorney David Patrick Callahan, who represented the two parishes during Piroli’s criminal trial, said that if the priest really wants to be vindicated, he should demand a new trial.

Callahan, who has been critical of Piroli in news interviews, dismissed Tuesday’s lawsuit as unfounded.

“I think that my statements drew at least three votes of the jurors,” he said, referring to the ones who voted in favor of convicting Piroli.

Piroli, flanked by his two attorneys, refused to answer questions during Tuesday’s news conference but read a prepared statement. Piroli’s attorneys had said earlier this week that he would sue the archdiocese.

“I believe that the archdiocese acted immorally and unethically in actively supporting the criminal prosecution against me,” he read from the statement.

He also accused the church of not disclosing to authorities that it could not say definitively whether money was missing from either parish. Furthermore, he said the church withheld information about internal audits conducted at the parishes, audits that Piroli contended would have explained why collections increased after he left both places.

In addition, Piroli said the archdiocese had continued “to hound me” by making allegedly defaming comments about him in the press.

Piroli has refused to say whether he wanted his indefinite suspension lifted. He asked church officials to settle his charges of malicious prosecution and defamation privately, but he was denied that opportunity as long as he insisted on being accompanied by attorneys at such a meeting, Piroli’s attorneys said.

“We’re not attempting to get him back in good standing with the church,” said attorney Douglas Brian Levinson of Los Angeles. “We’re trying to heal his reputation.”

Through a civil trial, Levinson said, the entire truth regarding Piroli’s arrest and the money found in his room would surface.

“He hopes that when this all comes out, he can prove he is innocent beyond a reasonable doubt,” Levinson said.