FLORIDA
NBC 2
By Levi Ismail, Reporter
SANIBEL –
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is dropping their investigation into Father Christoper Senk after the State Attorney’s Office announced they would not be pursuing charges.
The two-year long investigation was halted when the sheriff’s office attempted to get an arrest warrant for Senk to charge him with exploiting parishioner Marion McIntyre.
The SAO determined that there was not enough evidence of intimidation or deception on Senk’s part.
NBC2 spoke with McIntyre’s niece, who said Senk crossed the line and accepted lavish gifts from her aunt.
In the lengthy report by LCSO, they explain how the investigation began after a $30,000 gold and diamond ring belonging to McIntyre went missing from her hospital room. McIntyre’s family said the last person to be in the room with her was Senk. The ring would turn up later in a drawer as McIntyre was being moved, but it forced family to look into the relationship between Senk and Marion. They discovered in that time that Senk had been on the receiving end of thousands of dollars from McIntyre. Family members said McIntyre mysteriously withdrew $5,000 on one occasion and $3,500 on another occasion as gifts to the church. Other times McIntyre would write checks for the church, but would write the checks to Senk.
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