CINCINNATI (AP) — A former business manager for parishes in a Roman Catholic archdiocese in Ohio has been sentenced to three years in prison for stealing $353,000 in parish money.
A court official says 48-year-old Thomas Martin, of Mason, also was sentenced Tuesday in Cincinnati to five years of probation following prison. Martin pleaded guilty last month to three counts of theft from three parishes in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
A message left Tuesday for Martin's attorney wasn't immediately returned.
The archdiocese sued Martin last November, seeking at least $353,000 and punitive damages. The pending lawsuit alleges Martin failed to deposit money into parish bank accounts, forged checks and paid fake bills to businesses the suit says he controlled.
The archdiocese fired Martin and reported the allegations to the prosecutor's office.
