Former Bookkeeper Serving Time for Church Embezzlement

former bookkeeper, Kathleen Dake, will spend the next several months behind bars, serving time for stealing more than $400,000 from the church.

The 58-year-old Blackhawk resident, who worked for the church from 2002 to 2010, was sentenced last week to 300 days in jail and three years probation after pleading no contest to five counts of grand theft through embezzlement.

She admitted to an enhancement that she took more than $150,000 from the church. She was also ordered to pay back the $425,244 she took from the church over about five years, using a credit card and checks.

Supervising Deputy District Attorney Steve Bolen said Dake used the church's money to pay for plastic surgery, vet clinic bills and utility bills for her home in Blackhawk. She also paid for services on her Porsche, trips to the and shopping trips at , Nordstrom and Bloomingdales.

St. Isidore's Pastor Gerry Moran first noticed discrepancies in the parish financial office records in May 2010, leading to a nine-month police investigation.

Dake and two other former church staffers in connection with embezzling a total of $580,000 from the church. 

Virgilio Lukban of Danville, the church's full-time facilities manager since 2003, . Lukban's next court date is Aug. 25.

Evelyn Peinado, a longtime church volunteer from Alamo, pleaded not guilty to three counts of embezzlement. Peinado turned herself in at court for her arraignment. She also put money into a trust fund to cover restitution to the church should she be found guilty, said Bolen. Her next court date is Sept. 22.

All three church staffers were fired as a result of the investigation.

The church has since added a separate bookkeeper and accounting manager to monitor its finances, according to a statement from the Diocese of Oakland at the time of the arrests.