MICHIGAN
The Detroit News
Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News
April 30, 2018
Okemos — An investigation of a Catholic priest had focused on a $3 million mansion he built in 2007, but new records show the alleged pilfering began long before then.
The purported embezzlement started shortly after the Rev. Jon Wehrle founded St. Martha Church in 1988 and continued for 26 years, according to an audit by Plante Moran. In all, the priest is accused of taking $5.4 million from the church from 1991 to 2017, the audit shows.
Wehrle was charged with six counts of embezzlement last year and forced to resign as pastor of St. Martha. He is scheduled to be tried June 11 in Ingham County Circuit Court.
Church members, already shocked by earlier accounts of the alleged chicanery, are beginning to wonder whether they knew the priest at all.
“It’s shocking. I had no idea,” said former member Kathy Flynn.
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