LITTLE ROCK — A former church secretary has been sentenced to five years of probation for stealing $50,000 from Little Rock First Presbyterian Church after repaying the money on Friday.
Deputy prosecutor Colin Wall said he agreed to the sentence, which includes a four-month jail stint, after 36-year-old JenniferJacovelli brought the money to court to repay the church. He said Jacovelli's mother mortgaged her home to raise the money.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims fined Jacovelli $500 and ordered her to complete 200 hours of community service, which is 10 times the amount sought by prosecutors. She faced a maximum of 20 years in prison for Class B felony theft.
Jacovelli, a mother of two, apologized for stealing from First Presbyterian in a handwritten letter to the judge and blamed her stealing on an addiction to alcohol and drugs.
"I would like a chance to show I am a productive member of society," Jacovelli wrote, saying that she has been sober since January. "When I committed my crime, I had a serious drug and alcoholproblem. I am willing to go to any lengths in order to show the court and the church I am not the same person I was a year ago."
Hired by the Scott Street church in January 2006, Jacovelli's duties included managing the checkbook, but she was not a signatory on the church accounts. Checks had to be signed by two other people, Wall said, butJacovelli would dupe them into signing blank checks or pretend to be paying legitimate bills while depositing the money in her own bank account. About $4,100 worth of checks were written to a man that Jacovelli's attorney claims is known by church members to be a drug dealer, court files show.
Church leaders realized they had money problems in June 2008 when they learned a bank account was overdrawn. They didn't find out the extent until six weeks later, when Jacovelli quit to take another job and financial records were found to be in disarray. An audit determined that Jacovelli had stolen money from the Sunday collection and donations.
At a July 24 hearing, the church's former pastor, the Rev. Howard Gordon, testified that Jacovelli's thefts hurt his and fellow church members' ability to trust other people.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 13 on 08/26/2009