Ex-Church Employee Pleads Not Guilty to Embezzlement

A former church employee pleaded not guilty Tuesday to five felony grand theft charges accusing her of embezzling more than $85,000 from Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

Yvonne Roath, 52, who entered the plea in Pasadena Superior Court, was director of the church’s day-care center and treasurer of its women’s association, which organizes Bible studies and raises funds for church missions.

“The allegation is she embezzled upward of $85,000 over the course of 4 1/2 years,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert DeCarteret said.

Police “were able to seize assets in her bank account, some $35,000. But because of the size of the loss, we’re seeking jail time,” DeCarteret said.

DeCarteret said Roath worked for the church’s day-care center in various capacities for 17 years, but the charges concern discrepancies discovered between 1995 and 1999.

“It’s pretty sad,” said Mark K. Smutny, co-pastor of the church with his wife, Barbara A. Anderson. “Our parishioners were shocked. Most of them knew her. Some entrusted their children to her.”

Parishioners at Pasadena’s oldest church, which President Clinton has visited, were informed in a letter last fall of the allegations, Smutny said.

“This problem is all too common for churches across the country,” he said.

Roath was arrested in October and released on bail.

The charges filed by the district attorney’s office initially were dismissed after subpoenas were not served on key bank officials needed for a hearing in May, Smutny said. Prosecutors then refiled the charges.

Roath left the 125-year-old church on East Colorado Boulevard last August to work for the Del Mar public schools near San Diego, officials said.

“She has been a public servant for kids and the elderly. She just got a teacher of the year award in the area where she lives,” said Roath’s attorney, Robert Hale. “It is a situation that is blown out of proportion.”

When Anderson and Smutny took over the church almost 2 1/2 years ago they began questioning the finances of the day-care center, they said. “But it was the women’s association checking account that was the final clue,” Smutny said.

Church leaders first noticed missing check stubs in the women’s association checkbook in September. After contacting the bank, Smutny said, they discovered “significant discrepancies.”

He and Anderson contacted the Pasadena Police Department. An audit was conducted going back to 1995, and police arrested Roath.

Shortly before the loss was discovered, the church had been forced to close the day-care center, partly because of lack of money, Smutny said.

Anderson said church auditors have tracked a loss greater than $85,000, but much of it involves cash, so authorities are pursuing allegations they can document.

Roath, Anderson said, “was a trusted parishioner for 20 years. But she has never acknowledged to us she did anything wrong.”

Prosecutors say that because Roath has no criminal record, they are not seeking state prison time but believe that any plea bargain must include a county jail sentence unless the money is repaid in part or in full.