Suspended Priest Files Suit : Litigation: Father David Piroli charges church with defamation and malicious prosecution over embezzlement case, in which he was acquitted. Archdiocese concealed evidence, he says.

Claiming that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles went out of its way to help prosecute him, a suspended Ventura County priest sued the church Tuesday for malicious prosecution and defamation.

Father David Dean Piroli said that after a Ventura County jury acquitted him of embezzlement and deadlocked on a grand theft charge, church representatives have continued to attack him in the press.

He accused the archdiocese of concealing evidence that could have proved his innocence to charges that he stole more than $50,000 from his former parishes in Simi Valley and Saticoy.

“No one--not even the Holy Father himself--should put him or herself above the law,” Piroli said at a Los Angeles news conference.

Archdiocesan officials declined to respond to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages. “The archdiocese will comment at the appropriate place and time, which will probably be in court,” spokeswoman Brenda Anaya-Eckdahl said.

Tuesday’s lawsuit is the latest development in Piroli’s nearly two-year legal fight, which began May 29, 1992, when Los Angeles police found him and a Mexican national sitting in a church-owned car in Hollywood.

Police say they found $10,000 in small bills, trace amounts of cocaine and church collection envelopes in the car. Five days later, parishioners said they found more money stashed in Piroli’s Simi Valley bedroom and office.

Los Angeles County authorities declined to prosecute him. Ventura County prosecutors filed a charge of grand theft in connection with more than $50,000 that they accused him of stealing from St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley. On March 19, a jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal.

Prosecutors also filed a charge of embezzlement related to a small amount of money Piroli was accused of taking from a church in Saticoy. The same jury acquitted him of that charge.