Texas Woman Indicted For Embezzling $154K From Church

Patricia Ladawn Poehls, 37, of Bruceville, Texas, was indicted Wednesday on charges she embezzled more than $154,000 from St. Jerome Catholic Church where she had served as youth coordinator and bookkeeper responsible for payroll. Prosecutors allege that over the course of about one and a half years, between January 2007 and June 2008, Poehls stole a total of $154,329.27 from church coffers to pay for “school, hotels, airplane tickets" and other personal items. Poehls reportedly has claimed that she needed the money to pay after she and her husband had separated to pay for household and school expenses. Poehls' scheme allegedly involved the misappropriation of church funds via unauthorized credit card charges and fraudulent checks made to herself or personal vendors.

Read the story here and here.

Update (11/23/10): Poehls, who is now known as Rylie Joe Trish Wilson, pleaded guilty to charges she embezzled more than $125,000.