Man charged in bilking archdiocese of $100,000

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been cheated out of more than $100,000 by a Bucks County man who submitted receipts for hundreds of psychotherapy sessions that never occurred, authorities alleged Friday.

Police say Michael W. McDonnell also pocketed more than $8,000 in donations and payments intended for the Bucks County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, where he worked until recently.

McDonnell, 41, of Bristol, was arraigned Friday morning in Doylestown on felony charges including theft and forgery. He was being held in the Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $110,000 bail.

His lawyer says McDonnell claims to have been sexually abused as a child in Northeast Philadelphia by two priests.

Between June 2007 and February 2010, court records say, McDonnell received reimbursements of more than $100,000 from the Archdiocese for 662 purported "therapy sessions" - all but one of which never occurred - and for mileage to and to and from the sessions.

A county detective came across the alleged thefts from the archdiocese while investigating the smaller losses suffered by McDonnell's nonprofit employer, said Bucks County District Attorney David W. Heckler. McDonnell had been generating the bogus receipts using a template on his work computer, authorities allege.

The allegations involving the church "kind of came out of left field during this investigation," said McDonnell's attorney, Christoper Serpico. "From what I'm told, though, he was abused at the age of 11 or 12."

The archdiocese, Serpico said, "agreed to pay for therapy and other economic needs, and apparently didn't check very well as to where this money was going."

Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell said that she could not comment on individual cases, and did not know what kind of auditing or verification process may be applied to claims made to its Victim Assistance Program.

Farrell said that the church has been attempting in recent years to streamline and simplify the process of getting victims of clergy sexual abuse the financial support and counseling help they need.

"I'm not aware of any other situations such as this," she said.

Contact staff writer Larry King at 215-815-8707 or lking@phillynews.com.