Couple charged with stealing $1.2 million from their church

A South Park couple have been accused of stealing more than $1 million from an Upper St. Clair church over the span of several years.

David Reiter, 50, was the administrator for Westminster Presbyterian Church.

He was charged by detectives with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office with theft by deception, receiving stolen property, forgery and other offenses. His wife, Connie, 44, faces two counts of receiving stolen property.

They were arrested Tuesday. Mr. Reiter was hired as church administrator in 2001. He handled finances for the church, including payroll, money transfers between accounts, vendor payments and bank reconciliations.

In November, the treasurer of the church’s board of directors contacted the head pastor, the Rev. Jim Gilchrist, about an issue with the church’s auditing firm, Sisterson & Co., according to a

criminal complaint.

The treasurer, who is unnamed in court paperwork, said he had been trying to meet with the church’s assigned auditor, Drew Harrison, but Mr. Reiter kept making excuses about why the auditor couldn’t meet in person. The treasurer finally called the firm and discovered that no one named Drew Harrison worked there, according to the complaint.

The number Mr. Reiter gave to the treasurer to contact the phantom Mr. Harrison was a prepaid cell phone purchased by Mr. Reiter with church funds, the complaint said. And Mr. Reiter had been impersonating the auditor when he spoke to the treasurer on the phone, according to the paperwork.

On Nov. 27, Rev. Gilchrist spoke to Mr. Reiter, who said he “needed to resign” because he had done some “bad things,” the complaint said.

Mr. Reiter told the pastor that he had stolen $500,000 to $530,000 over a period of 10 to 12 years, according to the complaint. When the two spoke again a few days later, he admitted to taking another $100,000 from the Early Childhood Education Programs, a separate entity located in the basement of the church, the complaint said.

Investigators determined that he had stolen about $1.2 million and deposited it into a bank account controlled by him and his wife, the complaint said. Ms. Reiter is charged with taking part in more than $900,000 of that theft, according to the district attorney’s office.

The Reiters, authorities said, used the money for a variety of personal expenses, including family vacations, vehicle repairs, tickets to Pittsburgh Pirates games and groceries.

Mr. Reiter was being held on $50,000 straight bond. Ms. Reiter was released after posting 10 percent of $5,000 straight bond.

They face a preliminary hearing Feb. 28.

The Reiters could not be reached Tuesday, and no attorney was listed for them.

The church released a statement that said in part: “Mr. Reiter was a widely trusted, active member of the church, who served as the business administrator for 17 years, and he engaged in sophisticated forms of deception to hide his theft. While the church always had reasonable levels of controls for receiving and counting money and making disbursements by check, the theft was accomplished largely through electronic fund transfers. New procedures and controls have been implemented to prevent such activity in the future, and a full outside audit will be completed this spring.”