LAS VEGAS (NV)
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Posted: Jan. 15, 2012
John L. Smith
As a strict observer of the Nine Commandments, Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe toiled for nearly a decade as a leader of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church and the Las Vegas Diocese.
As a thief in immaculate robes, McAuliffe ripped off $650,000 from church coffers over the years to feed a raging video poker habit. He did not discriminate: He stole from the votive candle fund, the novena fund, and the church gift shop.
On Friday morning, in U.S. District Judge James Mahan’s packed courtroom, McAuliffe sought leniency and did not get it. Mahan heard about McAuliffe’s tragic gambling compulsion from defense expert witness Dr. Timothy Fong of UCLA’s Gambling Studies Program. In addition to displaying all the signs and symptoms of a man in the throes of gambling addiction, McAuliffe also appeared to suffer from depression and social anxiety disorder, the $250-an-hour expert said.
Defense attorney Margaret Stanish gamely tried to portray her client as a deeply remorseful man whose life of good deeds was marred only by a tragic flaw in the form of a gambling addiction.
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