Simi Priest Acquitted of Embezzlement to Sue L. A. Archdiocese

A Simi Valley priest accused of stealing more than $50,000 from his former parishes announced Monday that he will sue the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles for allegedly damaging his reputation while seeking his prosecution.

Father David Dean Piroli was acquitted last month of embezzling collection money from his former parish in Saticoy.

At the same time, a mistrial was declared on a charge that Piroli stole more than $50,000 from another parish, and Ventura County prosecutors announced earlier this month that they would not retry the priest.

The lawsuit, which is expected to be filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court and was unveiled at a sidewalk news conference in front of the archdiocese, seeks an unspecified amount of money for damages.

“We hold a very strong view that the church maliciously prosecuted Father Piroli,” said Doug Levinson, Piroli’s Santa Monica attorney. “What we want in a broader sense is to begin to rehabilitate Father David’s reputation and to try in some manner to lessen the financial devastation he has been subjected to.”

Archdiocese spokesman Gregory Coiro had little to say about the impending lawsuit.

“We haven’t seen the suit yet so it’s really impossible to comment on it,” he said. “All I can say is that the archdiocese cooperated with civil authorities; this was a criminal case.”

Piroli was arrested in May, 1992, when Los Angeles police found him sitting in a church-owned car in Hollywood. In the car, police found $10,000 in small bills, trace amounts of cocaine and church collection envelopes.

Five days later, as parishioners allegedly found thousands more dollars in Piroli’s Simi Valley bedroom and office, the priest fled the country.

Los Angeles police dropped drug charges because the amounts were too small to warrant a case and embezzlement charges because they were in the jurisdiction of the Simi Valley Police Department, which picked up the investigation and filed the case with the Ventura County district attorney’s office.

The county’s grand jury indicted Piroli on two counts of grand theft.

In August, Piroli was arrested by U. S. Border Patrol agents as he allegedly tried to enter the United States with two illegal immigrants.

Piroli maintained during his six-week trial that a senior pastor framed him by planting thousands of dollars in cash in his church car and his rooms at St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley.

But even after Piroli was cleared of one charge and prosecutors decided not to retry him on the other, Levinson alleges that church officials continued to harm Piroli’s reputation.

When Piroli was acquitted, David Patrick Callahan, an attorney for the archdiocese, was quoted as saying: “It’s very difficult to catch a thief who has a background in auditing and who knows if you steal cash it’s very hard to get caught.”

“I think if anyone else says that, we would call it defamatory,” Levinson said. “We have invited and encouraged the church to settle this matter privately and informally, and they have declined.”

Levinson said Piroli has not decided whether he wants to go back to work for the church.

The attorney said Piroli recently received a letter from Cardinal Roger Mahony inviting him to sit down and discuss his future as a priest. Piroli has yet to respond.

Coiro would not confirm or deny that such a letter was sent, saying it was a confidential matter.

Levinson said that if Piroli chooses to try to return to work, he doesn’t believe that the lawsuit will have a chilling effect on that goal.

“Nobody intends to offend the church,” he said. “But we don’t feel we are left with a lot of options short of bringing this matter before the court, and we have done so with extreme reluctance and a lot of sorrow.”