Former Holy Cross Catholic Church administrator Deborah True was expected to change her not guilty plea on first-degree felony theft charges today, avoiding what could have been an arduous airing of the beachside church’s dirty laundry going back more than a decade, with potentially hundreds of local victims testifying about stolen donations.
True is accused of stealing nearly $700,000 over a five-year time period when she managed church finances alongside parish priest Fr. Richard Murphy, who died in March 2020.
The 72-year-old True, who has been out on bond living in Colorado since her arrest three years ago, on April 23 requested today’s change of plea hearing. Vero Beach criminal defense attorney Andrew Metcalf, who represents True, said “the case is close to final resolution but I can’t discuss the ramifications of what’s going to happen until it happens.”
Murphy and True had worked in tandem since 1985 at a Catholic church in Stuart, and transferred to Vero Beach together in 1997, so the church’s losses presumably go back farther than 2015.
But due to the unavailability of bank records more than five years old when the investigation began, Vero Beach police detectives could only document $553,000 in checks paid to True, plus numerous electronic transfers made with funds siphoned off the donation plate into an off-books account to benefit True.
Had all the records been available, police estimate the losses to the central beach church to be about $1.5 million.
Since Murphy is deceased, and church leaders seemed oblivious to what was going on, it’s likely the truth will never come out about the case.
The story True told Vero’s Det. Kyle Eder in a phone interview was that 30-plus years ago, she became a divorced, single mother struggling financially while working at the Stuart church and holding down two other part-time jobs, and Fr. Murphy began to use church funds to help bail her out.
The financial assistance continued when Holy Cross inherited the priest and bookkeeper as a package deal in 1997, and in 2012 True and Murphy opened a bank account at PNC Wealth Management which they never reported to the Palm Beach Diocese or to the parish council. Over the years, they would deposit $1.46 million into that off-book account.
According to True’s statements to police, Fr. Murphy would allegedly tell True how to divvy up the collections and special donations of stock proceeds between the legitimate bank accounts and the secret account.
True told police that after big-donation events like Christmas and Easter, she and Fr. Murphy skimmed off the bounty into the secret bank account. Nearly 80 checks were written to True on the account, plus she would electronically transfer thousands of dollars at a time to pay her credit card debt and personal loans.
More than $33,000 was paid to Wells Fargo bank to cover True’s credit card purchases at stores like Bed Bath and Beyond, Dillard’s and Home Depot. In addition, $236,000 was used to pay off two PNC credit cards in True’s name, with charges ranging from shoes to electronics, airline tickets and rental cars to pet supplies.
True was Fr. Murphy’s constant companion, as they dined and traveled out of state together, and True took care of the priest when he fell ill, court records show. After Murphy died on March 22, 2020, True admittedly took more than $9,000 in cash that Murphy kept in a bag in the rectory, deposited it into the secret account and paid off a large debt with it, before closing the account – which she said she did to protect Murphy.
Fr. Murphy, a County Wexford, Ireland, native ordained in 1965, was 80 years old when he died, having worked with True for 23 years.
True retired from the Diocese four months after Murphy’s death, and was arrested in September 2020 after the new priest and parish administrator began uncovering the theft.
Prominent members of the Vero island community had donations stolen or served on the parish council which was supposed to oversee the finances. Had True opted for a jury trial, each person whose donation checks were deposited into the secret account might have been called to testify, to examine the check and to say that the money was intended to support Holy Cross Catholic Church – not to be used by Fr. Murphy and True to benefit True’s own finances.
“Sentencing will be on a separate date,” Assistant State Attorney Bill Long said last week, based upon True scheduling a change of plea hearing before Judge Robert Meadows.
With the very serious charges True was facing, “First Degree Grand Theft Pursuant to a Scheme or Course of Conduct” in the amount of $100,000 or more, if found guilty she could have been sentenced up to 30 years in prison.
The total True is accused of stealing is $697,138.98. The fact that the money was taken from church donations could be seen as an exacerbating factor, causing the judge to lean toward the higher end of the sentencing range, even if it meant True was likely to die in state prison.
In June 2021 True purchased a two-story house with a three-car garage in Frederick, Colo., for $550,000, according to Weld County, Colo., public records.
It’s in this comfy setting where Meadows – who inherited the case from retired Circuit Court Judge Dan Vaughn – has allowed her to remain while awaiting trial.
True claimed her adult son has mental problems and needed her. True had been skipping court appearances by getting waivers so she would not have to travel to Florida, but in April 2024 Meadows ended that convenience, requiring True to show up in court each time a status hearing or continuance came before the bench.
