Beth LeBlanc

Lansing State Journal

MASON - Auditors believe an Okemos priest charged with embezzlement Monday spent about $1.85 million in parish funds on his home.

Check stubs and invoices indicate funds from St. Martha Parish in Okemos were spent on work and materials at Rev. Jonathan Wehrle’s Noble Road home, according to testimony at a court hearing Monday.

The 10-acre Williamston property, according to county assessing records, includes an 11,345-square-foot home with a cash value of $1.48 million. The property also has three barns ranging from 1,792 to 2,304 square feet with a combined cash value of about $148,000.

Taxes on the property in 2016 were $25,106, according to county records.

Lawrence Nolan, Wehrle’s lawyer, said Monday that his client had “independent family money.” He added that Wehrle's salary from the Diocese of Lansing is about $40,000 a year.

Nolan said he has not seen the invoices referred to in the hearing because all of Wehrle’s financial records were seized during the Michigan State Police investigation.

He said he is confident there is an explanation for the allegations against his client.

"When you know people over a long period of time, you have confidence of who they are and that they’ve done the right thing," Nolan said. "And I have that confidence in my client.”

Wehrle, the founding pastor of St. Martha Parish, was put on paid administrative leave by the Catholic Diocese of Lansing on May 9. He was arrested at his home on Saturday and arraigned Monday on a charge of embezzlement of $100,000 or more, a 20-year felony.

He was released Monday on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.

Detective First Lt. Thomas DeClercq, commander of the Michigan State Police 1st District special investigations section, said Monday the case remains under investigation and additional charges are anticipated.

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The alleged embezzlement was uncovered during an audit by the Catholic Diocese of Lansing, according to testimony Monday from Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Erik Darling. The review was part of a diocesan initiative to perform routine financial audits at all diocesan parishes.

The initial audit “raised numerous red flags,” prompting the diocese to hire Plante Moran to conduct a full financial review at the church, Darling said.

The Plante Moran audit at St. Martha’s is ongoing, Darling said, but initial findings led diocesan officials to contact state police.

Wehrle, who founded St. Martha's in 1988, had sole management of church operations, Darling said, and wrote checks from St. Martha’s to pay for personal expenses including those related to the building of his home.

Darling said Plante Moran’s lead investigator found $1.85 million was spent on Wehrle’s personal residence. In 2016 alone, about $140,512 in parish funds were spent on Wehrle’s home.

“Plante Moran was able to provide ample documentation to support these figures in the form of check stubs from St. Martha’s Parish and accompanying invoices for work and/or materials supplied to Wehrle’s personal residence,” Darling told Magistrate Mark Blumer Monday, according to court records.

Darling said he had 10 invoices from August 2011 to September 2016 for $169,613 in work done at Wehrle’s home, according to court records.

Police have 40 additional boxes of financial documents, seized from Wehrle’s home and St. Martha’s May 9, that have yet to be examined.

Darling said three signed affidavits from the diocese’s current and former bishops indicate Wehrle had no permission to use parish funds on his private residence.

A State Journal review of Wehrle’s property records indicate a home owned by Jonathan W. Wehrle and Dorothy I. Wehrle in Pleasant Lake in Jackson County sold for at least $700,000 in March. Nolan said Monday the home was Wehrle's mother's, and she now lives with him in Williamston.

Property records indicate Jonathan W. Wehrle or the Jonathan W. Wehrle Trust have ownership in two additional properties along Noble Road in Williamston, and sold two other Noble Road parcels in 2004 and 2006 for a total of $610,000.

Wehrle or his trust also were listed as owners of at least six parcels in Highlands County, Florida that sold for a total of $725,000 between 2004 and 2006, according to Florida property records. Michael Diebold, a spokesman for the diocese, said he could not comment specifically on the audit at St. Martha’s or the ongoing investigation at the church. He said a change in the diocese’s audit policy in recent years now requires a financial audit at each parish every three to five years. In the past, audits were performed when a pastor retired or moved parishes.

In 1988, the Diocese of Lansing sold Wehrle property on Van Atta Road in Meridian Township for $17,725, according to a warranty deed signed by then-Bishop Kenneth Povish.

A home was built on the 3.9-acre parcel and it sold two years later for $370,000, according to county records.

Contact Reporter Beth LeBlanc at 517-377-1167 oreleblanc@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LSJBethLeBlanc.