wfn.org | FORMER EPISCOPAL CHURCH TREASURER S

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org]

July 25, 1996
Episcopal News Service
James Solheim, Director
(212) 922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

EPISCOPAL CHURCH TREASURER SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS FOR
EMBEZZLEMENT

BY JAMES H. THRALL
       (ENS) Dismissing claims of former Episcopal Church treasurer Ellen
Cooke
that mental illness combined with stress caused her to embezzle more than $2
million
from the church, United States District Court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry
departed
from court guidelines, July 10, to hand Cooke a stiffer than usual sentence of
five
years in prison.
       Cooke's attorney, Plato Cacheris, said later that Cooke will appeal the
sentence, but may start her incarceration as scheduled, August 26, while the
appeal is
pending.
       While Cacheris had argued that the sentence should be less than
normally
stipulated by the federal guidelines because Cooke suffered from a type of
"bipolar"
mental disorder, Barry called the psychiatric defense "spurious" and instead
condemned Cooke's efforts to avoid responsibility.
       "This defendant deliberately and meticulously, and with knowledge then
and
now, looted the national church over a period of years with one reason and one
reason only--to live the life of someone she was not," Barry said. Noting that
she has
rarely ordered a stiffer sentence than the guidelines recommend, Barry
nonetheless
said that the circumstances of Cooke's case "scream for an upward departure."
       Cooke, who was national treasurer from 1986 until the end of 1994,
pleaded
guilty January 24 to tax evasion and transporting stolen money across state
lines in
connection with the embezzlement that occurred over the last four years of her
tenure.
Funds siphoned from a number of accounts went to purchase and renovate a house
in
Montclair, New Jersey, and a farm in Virginia, as well as to pay her
children's
private school tuition.

A "FLAGRANT" ABUSE OF TRUST             
       Asking "Is nothing sacred any more," Barry said that the crime was
particularly heinous because it involved a church. A church, she said, "is
different
from a bank. It's different from a teller taking ten thousand bucks from the
till."
       Cooke, she added, was no different from a common thief. "She did not
wear a
mask or use a gun," she said, but did not need to because of the trust placed
in her as
a top official of a religious institution.
       Barry said that she based her decision to raise the sentence on the
loss of
confidence that resulted for "an institution that performs an essential
function in the
care of the needy," the disruption caused in the church's ability to "support
its
ministry at home and abroad," and on the "flagrant" nature of the abuse of
trust. 
       A letter from senior staff of the Episcopal Church describing the wide
ranging
effects of the embezzlement also contributed strongly to her sense that the
damage
done required a greater sentence, she said.
       Saying, "I condemn this crime and the greed that caused it," Barry
excoriated
Cooke for her refusal to "accept responsibility for one's actions, blaming
everyone
and everything except oneself." 
       The five-year sentence, which exceeds the normal maximum suggested by
the
federal guidelines by 14 months, will be served at Cooke's request at the
Federal
Prison Camp for Women at Alderson, West Virginia, so that Cooke can be near
her
family in Virginia. Cooke could earn a slight reduction in her sentence
through "good
time," but parole is no longer permitted under the federal guidelines.
       Barry ordered Cooke to present herself at the prison and to serve three
years
of supervised release following the imprisonment. She is also to pay $75,000
to the
church in additional restitution, and may participate in a mental health
program if she
desires, the judge said.
       For the purposes of restitution, Barry accepted the church's accounting
that
showed the theft totaled $2.2 million, rather than the approximately $1.5
million
claimed by Cooke, but noted that "restitution can only be made according to
the
ability to pay." To date the church has recovered about $1.6 million of the
stolen
funds, including a $1 million insurance settlement, approximately $500,000
from the
sale of properties owned by Cooke and her husband, Nicholas, and about
$100,000 in
other cash and assets claimed from the Cookes. A civil suit brought against
the
Cookes was settled by the church in March.

PARISH LOOKS FOR CLOSURE
       Sitting in the same Newark, New Jersey, courtroom where she pleaded
guilty,
Cooke sat impassively through the two-hour hearing, rising only once to say
softly,
"No, your honor," when asked if she had any comment to make. She was
accompanied by a few supporters, but by no members of her family. She left the
immediately after the hearing without speaking, ushered out of the courtroom
by court
marshals.
       Barbara Fondeur, junior warden at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in
Montclair,
New Jersey, where Nicholas Cooke served as rector during the time of the
embezzlement, watched the proceedings with several other women from the parish
in
hopes, they said, that it would help them put the embezzlement's pain behind
them.
       "I think we wanted to bear witness and have final closure for the
people of St.
Luke's," Fondeur said. "It has been difficult for us as individuals and for us
as a
congregation. She was our fellow worshiper. She was our friend. This is what
we had
to see through."
       Fondeur called the sentence fair, "when you think of the impact of the
deed
and the pain it has caused. She took from those who were most vulnerable."
       Nicholas Cooke, who resigned from the priesthood, has not been charged
with
criminal or ecclesiastical misconduct.

COOKE WILL APPEAL SENTENCE 
       While Cacheris declined to comment on the arguments he would use to
support
Cooke's appeal, he indicated at the time of the sentencing that Barry's
dismissal of
the psychiatric defense might be one of several grounds. He called Cooke a
"fundamentally good person" who has done "many commendable things in her
life."
Unfortunately, he said, "she suffers from this illness."
       In a memorandum to the court, he said that Cooke's psychiatrist
diagnosed her
as having an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder as well as suffering
"periods
of hypomanic behavior and periods of depressive symptoms." She "cracked,"
Cacheris said, under the high stress of serving in a position for which she
was not
qualified during a time when she carried the personal burdens of suffering a
miscarriage, failing in vitro fertilization, and coping with her parents'
serious
illnesses.
       But Barry agreed with Assistant United States Attorney Robert Ernst who
called the defense ploy "a charade," and who stressed a second psychiatrist's
observation that Cooke was able to function quite rationally and competently
throughout the four years of the embezzlement. Her claim to have forgotten the
specific events of her embezzlement because of the personality disorder, he
said, in
particular was "selective" and a "carefully calculated" fabrication.
       "I am absolutely convinced that the defendant did not suffer from a
significantly reduced mental capacity when she committed the crime she
committed,"
Barry said. "She performed every task very well, including embezzling $2
million."
       When Cacheris tried to show evidence Cooke's personality disorder,
observing
that "she's a control freak," Barry snapped back, "So am I."
       "She's obsessive-compulsive," added Cacheris.
       "Aren't we all?" Barry answered.
       A schedule for filing briefs in the appeal process and for a court
hearing will
be set by the United States Appeals Court in Philadelphia, Cacheris said. He
said
Cooke might begin her sentence as scheduled, or ask to be released on bail
pending
her appeal. "We are deciding that now," he said.

STAFF LETTER PLAYS KEY ROLE
       Barry read aloud most of a one-and-a-half-page letter written by seven
members of the senior staff of the national church, including Presiding Bishop
Edmond Browning and House of Deputies President Pamela Chinnis, to support her
assessment of the harm the embezzlement caused the church's ministry. The
staff
members, who were invited to offer input into the sentencing process, argued
against
the defense efforts to have the sentence reduced to less than the guidelines
suggested. 
       "While we have no desire for retribution or the imposition of more hurt
on
Mrs. Cooke's family," the staff members wrote, "it ... is our collective
belief that a
lenient sentence would add further to the damages that we have suffered."
       The financial impact has been severe as contributions to the national
church
have declined, and even other denominations have reported that "their
contributions
have suffered because of the ripple effect of Mrs. Cooke's actions," the
letter stated,
but "the psychic impact on our staff and organization has been more
debilitating."
       Former staff members who lost jobs because of the church's economic
retrenchment "cannot be convinced that there is no direct correlation between
her
actions and the loss of their employment," the letter stated. "Beneficiaries
of ministry
programs that have been closed due to declining income share the same
impression."
       Cacheris challenged the letter as making unsubstantiated claims, but
declined,
after conferring with Cooke, when Barry asked if he wanted to hold a separate
sentencing hearing to review the letter's statements. Cacheris later said
Cooke had not
wanted to endure an additional hearing. 

PRESIDING BISHOP SEES END OF PAINFUL CHAPTER
       Following the sentence, Browning noted that "the judge herself
recognized the
enormity of the tragedy of this embezzlement and its effects over these last
18 months
on our church." Since the theft was discovered, he said, the task of national
staff, as
stewards of church funds, "has been restitution of what has been stolen, the
restoration of confidence, and the assurance of a financial operation of
soundness and
integrity."
       Browning added, "As members of a faith community, we have faced the
equally difficult task of coming again and again to our knowledge of sin,
repentance,
redemption and healing." As the day of sentencing marks "the end of an
enormously
painful chapter, may it mark as well a beginning characterized by our
knowledge that
all is possible in Christ," he said. "My prayers are with Ellen Cooke and her
family."
       When Cooke's case came under the jurisdiction of the federal courts,
Chinnis
noted, "it was removed completely from any influence or control by the
Episcopal
Church, though there were many who wondered why the leadership of the church
could not hasten a decision in this case." Now, she said, "for good or ill,
the legal
justice system has spoken."
       Fortunately, Chinnis said, the church has managed to recover most of
the
monies that were taken "so the damage to our evangelism and outreach programs
will
not be permanent." A new financial team, she stressed, "has restored integrity
within
our system" and helped develop "additional means to minimize our future
vulnerability."
       She added, "We can only pray that God will bring healing to all who
have
been affected by these acts and that we can move on to do the work God has
given us
to do."

--JAMES H. THRALL IS DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.