Episcopal Ex-Treasurer Pleads Guilty in Theft

The former treasurer of the Episcopal Church admitted this week in federal court in Newark, N.J., that she embezzled more than $1.5 million from the church and evaded income taxes on part of the stolen money.

Ellen F. Cooke, 52, who served as the church’s top financial officer from 1986 to 1995, pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transfer of stolen money and one count of tax evasion.

She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the first count, and five years and a $250,000 fine on the second count. Prosecutors and attorneys for Cooke have agreed as part of her plea arrangement that she should serve 31 to 46 months in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for April 29.

Cooke, who earned $125,000 annually, resigned as treasurer of the 2.5-million-member denomination last January. In May, church officials accused her of embezzling about $2.2 million in church funds.

According to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Newark, Cooke admitted that she had abused her position as treasurer since 1990, stealing Episcopal Church funds by depositing checks written on church bank accounts into her personal bank accounts and using church money to pay for personal credit card bills and for private school tuition for her children.

In May 1994, she oversaw the transfer of $76,464 from a church operating account in Washington to her personal Merrill Lynch account in New Jersey, Cooke told the court.

She also admitted that she filed a false 1993 tax return by not reporting more than $146,000 in taxes owed. She said in court that she reported a 1993 income of $178,192 when she actually had an income of more than $489,000.

In a statement addressed to the church, Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning said he was “enormously relieved that we have reached this almost final stage in the process.”

“I personally have faced the difficult fact that this was ultimately my responsibility,” he said.

During the half-hour hearing Wednesday, Cooke told the judge that she accepts responsibility for her actions, but a mental condition prevents her from recalling her behavior. She had previously said that the thefts were the result of a “breakdown” caused by the “pain, abuse and powerlessness” she felt as one of the denomination’s highest-ranking women.

The church recovered about $300,000 of the money by selling a home Cooke owned in Montclair, N.J., and has received an additional $1 million from an insurance policy.

Church spokesman Jim Thrall said the church hopes to recover more money through the sale of a farm in Virginia that Cooke and her husband owned.

In addition, Browning said the Episcopal Church has filed a civil suit against the Cookes.