Affidavit says Armstrong misappropriated $392,000 in Parish Raid by Bishop
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
1/9/2009
The Rev. Donald Armstrong funneled money earmarked for "single, unmarried seminarians" from a Grace Church trust fund to pay for his two children's college tuition, according to Colorado Springs police investigators.
Local press reports said the affidavit, returned by detective Michael Flynn to the court, outlines the 18-month police investigation from May 2007 - when they were notified by the Episcopal Church, Diocese of Colorado, that it suspected financial wrongdoing by Armstrong - and Nov. 25, 2007, when a judge signed the warrant authorizing the search.
"The Diocesan investigation concluded, in part, that the Reverend Donald Armstrong misappropriated approximately $392,000 in parish and Clarice C. Bowton Trust money without authorization," the affidavit states.
In October 2007, Armstrong completed a notarized affidavit stating Bowton trustees "voted to use the Bowton Trust to help fund the ministry of the Anglican Institute." Armstrong was unable to provide a letter supporting that, Flynn wrote.
That letter is posted on the Grace Church web site http://www.graceandststephens.org/ as well as an article by Armstrong concerning the thinking of the English Reformers on the issue of truth and unity.
Armstrong also told police that the scholarships for his children, Zachary and Melissa, "were authorized by former church wardens Stuart Loosley and John Simons," Flynn wrote.
Flynn could find no documentation signed by Loosley or Simons "recording this decision and the terms of the agreement that cost parishioners approximately $300,000."
Father Armstrong told VOL that police took a folder from his desk that contained checks signed by Loosely and Simons to Tuition management Systems proving their approval of the benefit. At no time, even with the scholarships, was this successful rector who more than tripled the size of the parish as well as running the very effective Anglican Institute, compensated beyond diocesan recommended limits. But maybe it was this success of Armstrong's evangelical ministry and the threat to the agenda of the liberal leadership of TEC that are the real cause for this all out frontal attack against him.
Armstrong was inhibited and deposed in 2007 by an ecclesiastical court that officially removed him from the Episcopal Church as a priest.
The parish is now affiliated with CANA and the Anglican Province in North America.
In an e-mail to VirtueOnline, Fr. Armstrong said this was the same old information that has been passed around for over three years. "The vestry had a forensic audit that proved everything in our church is in order. This is spin and distortion and lies from a small group of malcontents who all have story that I can't tell for pastoral reasons. We have done nothing wrong."
Armstrong said Bishop O'Neill's attorney has been hounding the police with these accusations to make it harder for he and Grace Church to fund their property case and to distract him from building the parish. "But the Lord is blessing us despite TEC's best efforts to impose their culture of decline. The diocese is itself its own victim. Their attack on Grace Church has cost the diocese millions of dollars which could have been used to build new churches if they had a gospel to proclaim in even their already vacant buildings now being leased to more vibrant organizations."
Armstrong says he welcomes the investigation and trusts that the police will discover what the forensic auditor did. "We are a typical church focused on good works with no ill intent, with a competent staff that has done good work to the glory of God. We have a vestry that has always been attentive to building the church and minding the store."
Armstrong said he will shortly post documents to the parish's web site "to counter the diocesan PR campaign against us."
Tuesday, Flynn said police are still investigating the case.
If they find probable cause that a crime has been committed, they will turn the case over to a special prosecutor from the 10th Judicial District Attorney's office in Pueblo. Fourth Judicial District Attorney John Newsome, who will leave office next week, was a Grace member and recused himself from any involvement in the case.
The trial over the church property occupied by the breakaway is set for February 10 in Fourth Judicial District Court.
END
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