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Ex-Church Employee Gets 6 Months in Jail for Thefts

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

An ex-church employee was sentenced to 180 days in county jail and three years probation for embezzling more than $80,000 from the historic Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

Yvonne Roath, 53, had pleaded no contest Oct. 12 to a felony count of grand theft by means of embezzlement. On Monday, a Pasadena Superior Court judge ordered the jail time and for her to pay $80,380 in restitution, officials said.

As director of the church’s day-care center and treasurer of its women’s association, Roath used her positions to “siphon funds from both groups and funnel [the money] into a secret account” from which she wrote checks to herself and friends, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryann Gerber.

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Roath worked at the church in various capacities for 17 years, but the charge against her stemmed from incidents between 1995 and 1999. Initially, the district attorney’s office had filed five felony counts against her--one for every year of embezzling--and Roath pleaded not guilty. But those counts were merged into one when the defendant changed her plea.

Police seized her secret account and the amount will be put toward restitution, Gerber said. The exact amount recovered was unclear.

Roath, who left the 125-year-old church on East Colorado Boulevard in 1999, hopes to serve her jail time in San Diego County, where she had moved shortly before her arrest to work in the Del Mar public schools, the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors originally filed charges against Roath in October 1999 but had to dismiss them after key subpoenas were not served, church officials said. Prosecutors subsequently refiled the charges.

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