Detroit-Area Priest Convicted Of Stealing From Angel Fund Charity
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A jury has found a 58-year-old Detroit-area Catholic priest guilty of stealing money from a charity for the poor after he denied the charges and said he wrongly signed a confession to police.
The Rev. Timothy Kane was convicted Tuesday in Wayne County Circuit Court of crimes including embezzlement between $1,000 and $20,000 from a charitable institution. The 58-year-old will be sentenced in December.
Kane testified Tuesday that he didn't steal money from the Angel Fund, an Archdiocese of Detroit charity fund created to assist people in need. Kane says confusion caused by diabetes made him sign a confession to police after his February arrest.
In that confession, Kane admitted to stealing the money for a prison inmate he had befriended. According to the confession statement, Kane said he had a sexual relationship with the inmate and embezzled money for the man and his family. Kane said he "misappropriated funds" for the man's personal needs, as well as to buy gifts and gas for the man's family members and help pay their rent, according to the statement. Kane also said he felt "bad about what I've done," a detective testified.
In court this week, Kane denied having a relationship with the inmate. He said signs of low blood sugar, including confusion and an inability to concentrate, impacted his responses the day of his arrest -- but the jury was not swayed.
Kane and an acquaintance, Dorreca Brewer, were charged in February. Brewer last month pleaded no contest to charges that she lied and embezzled from the Angel Fund. Under her plea, Brewer was ordered to pay restitution and five-years of probation.
According to prosecutors, the pair approved false applications for the Angel Fund and pocketed thousands of dollars over four years. The Angel Fund had been run by the Archdiocese of Detroit and granted more than $17 million to needy people since 2005.
After Kane was charged, the archdiocese said single anonymous donor who backed the Angel Fund was discontinuing the fund, although church officials said it wasn't because of the case
Kane was offered a plea deal before the trial but declined. He was also convicted of continuing a criminal enterprise, using a computer to commit a crime, uttering and publishing, conspiring to commit uttering and publishing, and conspiracy to embezzlement from a charitable institution -- charges which carry up to 88 years in prison total. He's due to be sentenced on Dec. 12.
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