Ex-administrator at Holy Cross Church pleads no contest in $700,000 embezzlement scheme

Yahoo

06-05-2025

VERO BEACH – A 72-year-old woman accused of embezzling around $700,000 from Holy Cross Catholic Church is expected to serve a decade in prison as part of a plea deal with the state, according to court papers and a prosecutor.
On May 1, Deborah Lynn True, a resident of Frederick, Colorado and a former parish administrator at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Vero Beach, pleaded no contest to first-degree grand theft after misusing church donations over several years to pay off personal debts, records show.
The church is at 500 Iris Lane on Orchid Island.
At True's sentencing on July 18, a judge is expected to sentence her to prison for 10 years followed by 20 years of probation. She'll also be ordered to pay the church $697,138.98 in restitution.
Assistant State Attorney William Long said May 2 the terms of the plea deal call for Circuit Judge Robert Meadows to order True to pay the restitution in equal monthly installments for the duration of her probation or face being returned to prison.
The plea offer Meadows approved during a May 1 hearing came after Long had consulted with Catholic church officials, he said.
'This (plea deal) represented both the state's pursuit of justice and what we thought was a fair sentence, as well as the interest of the victims in this matter,' Long said.
Debbie True listens as the Rev. Richard Murphy, of Holy Cross Catholic Church, blesses the new buildings at St. Francis Manor in 2018.
Bank account hidden from Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach
True was arrested in September 2022 following a Vero Beach police investigation that began in December 2021 after the chief financial officer of the Diocese of Palm Beach reported True and the late Rev. Richard Murphy were suspected "of embezzling over $1 million in funds,' court records show.
Murphy was pastor at Holy Cross until he died at age 80 in March 2020. True retired in July 2020 and moved to Jacksonville, then Colorado.
The Rev. Richard Murphy (center) blesses the palm crosses that were passed out to members of the congregation before Mass during the Solemn Entrance of Palm Sunday April 1, 2012, at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Vero Beach. Alter girl Gabrielle Diskin holds the holy water.
An additional church bank account was discovered after a new pastor and bookkeeper were hired, an arrest affidavit stated.
According to police investigators, in 2012 True and Murphy opened a bank account hidden from the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach, and that nearly $1.5 million of parishioners' donations were fraudulently deposited into the account since 2015.
Nearly $550,000 was used to pay True's personal lines of credit, and about $147,000 was deposited into True's personal checking accounts, records show.
When police spoke with True via phone, she told investigators she transferred to the church in 1997 with Murphy. They had worked at a Catholic church in Stuart from the mid-1980s until 1997.
She told investigators her title at Holy Cross was 'parish administrator' and her job 'included tasks such as scheduling events, human resources, bookkeeping and payroll.'
'She was the only person who would deposit checks received by Holy Cross,' investigators noted.
She eventually told investigators she used funds to pay off her personal debt, saying Murphy gave her permission.
'She said she never gave it a thought, that the account was funded by parishioners' donations to Holy Cross,' investigators reported. 'She just looked at it as a gift. She closed the account to protect Murphy.'
Police reported Murphy also appeared to benefit from the money, but because of his death a criminal investigation wasn't conducted to identify an amount.
Holy Cross Catholic Church on Orchid Island in Vero Beach at 500 Iris Lane off State Road A1A.
Left 'holding the bag'
True's attorney Andy Metcalf, of Vero Beach on May 2 said she accepted the state's plea offer knowing she faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted at trial.
'Financial crime cases are very difficult as far as sentencing. You can do a lot to mitigate a sentence if you have the money,' he said. 'There's restitution to be paid in this case and that restitution is not available to be paid.'
He called the 10-year prison term a 'very harsh punishment for someone that's 72 years old.'
'The tragedy is that the potential codefendant in the case died and left her (True) holding the bag. And there are people that are in sheer denial over that fact,' Metcalf said. 'I don't know the pulse of the parishioners at the church, but I can tell you that the evidence in that case is pretty, pretty clear and it's just unfortunate that she's left to defend herself.'
With time off for good behavior, True is expected to serve up to 8 ½ years, he said.
'I think it's tragic. Ms. True has … been very cooperative and at her age it's a catastrophic sentence. But she felt like it was in the best interest of her family and herself and that's why she entered the plea,' Metcalf said. 'It's a difficult set of facts … and I just hope that some of the people that have been pointing fingers will remember the tenets of their religion and that is mercy and forgiveness.'
Rail yard: Trains full of trash from Miami-Dade causing a stink in Fort Pierce
Financial report: Vero Beach files overdue audit, but still may face sales-tax penalty
Long, too, acknowledged that serving 10 years at True's age may sound harsh, but for the State Attorney's Office, 'the primary purpose of prosecution is punishment,' he said.
'It's certainly important to try and make a victim whole, but to steal this amount of money and then not face any consequences or no chance of going prison is not something the State Attorney's Office was ever going to do,' he said. 'Ten years quite frankly, is the minimum she should get for this.'
Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Holy Cross Church ex-administrator faces prison for $700K embezzlement