Former bookkeeper pleads guilty to stealing $300K from New Jersey Catholic parishes

A New Jersey woman has pled guilty to stealing nearly $300,000 from two Roman Catholic churches where she worked as a bookkeeper.

The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office announced in a statement Tuesday that Melissa Rivera had pled guilty to two counts of theft in connection with crimes she committed between May 2018 and May 2024 while working as a bookkeeper at Our Lady of the Mountain in Washington Township and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Pompton Plains, both of which are located in Morris County, New Jersey. 

Rivera allegedly stole $287,487 from Our Lady of the Mountain and used the funds to write herself 137 checks. She wrote herself three additional checks using a combined total of $5,242 in stolen funds from Our Lady of Good Counsel. 

In a March 28 statement posted on Our Lady of the Mountain’s website, the Diocese of Paterson shared more details about the role that it played in uncovering Rivera’s crimes. The Diocese’s Department of Finance began investigating after observing “irregularities in the check-writing activity” at the parish during its normal oversight of financial activity at its churches. 

“Upon further investigation by diocesan finance officials, a suspected pattern of alleged embezzlement emerged, and the Diocese of Paterson notified the Morris County Prosecutor’s office immediately and terminated the bookkeeper from her position effective immediately,” the diocese stated. The diocese stressed that its Office of Finance “has identified the financial control weaknesses that allowed the alleged embezzlement to occur through the manipulation of checks with the use of a computer.”

The diocese indicated that its financial team was “taking several stringent steps to assist all of [its] parishes with preventing this type of fraud and embezzlement.” One initiative the diocese has taken, as outlined on its website, is the implementation of a hotline that allows “employees, volunteers, vendors, parishioners and other interested parties to report concerns they have regarding suspected financial or other misconduct” involving a parish and/or one of its employees.

The hotline is administered by EthicsPoint, an independent third-party company. Those seeking to file a report can do so online or by calling 855-247-3140. 

Rivera was first charged with theft on March 27, which followed the completion of an investigation by the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office Financial Crimes Unit that uncovered her crimes. The former bookkeeper will undergo probation with 364 days in the Morris County Correctional Center as a condition of probation. 

Another condition of Rivera’s probation involves her paying the churches she stole from $292,728, equivalent to the total amount she spent writing herself checks. Rivera is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.