Official: Priest fired for misusing funds

Trinity Episcopal Church’s rector allegedly spent $200,000 on personal use

MENLO PARK >> Trinity Episcopal Church’s rector was fired earlier this month after a forensic audit found he used more than $200,000 in church funds for his personal use, according to a church official.

The Rev. Matthew Dutton- Gillet had been placed on leave in

April after a financial review by church leaders found he had misspent a minimum of $125,000 in church funds over the past five years.

A forensic audit over the past few months found Dutton- Gillett, who led Trinity for a decade, actually spent more than twice as much as officials initially thought, Steve Andrew, a member of Trinity’s governing committee, confirmed Friday.

According to a letter sent to parishioners Friday, the Episcopal Diocese of California hired Evidentia Consulting of Redwood City to conduct the investigation. The company found that DuttonGillett began using the funds for personal use in 2011, shortly after he became rector in 2009.

Andrew said Dutton- Gillett — who was fired Sept. 4 — used church credit cards, electronic transactions and numerous other methods to siphon the money from parish donations.

“The money came from the parish’s operating account, which comes directly from donated funds,” Andrew said. “We are a volunteer charitable organization, and we work completely on donations. We’re just so deeply saddened, shocked and surprised by the breach of trust between Matthew and the parish.”

Trinity Church is interviewing candidates for an interim rector.

Church officials said they filed a report with Menlo Park police, who are conducting a criminal investigation of Dutton- Gillett. The priest also entered into “an agreement for discipline” with Bishop Marc Andrus.

The agreement says that for at least four years, Dutton- Gillett — who is married with two children — will not be allowed to preside over weddings or baptisms or otherwise engage in the activities of

a priest.

After the fours years are up, Bishop Andrus “may remove him from the priesthood or modify, sustain or remove the restrictions on his ministry,” according to the agreement.

The agreement also says the priest must repay the missing funds and cannot contact members of his former parish. In addition, the church prohibited him from

accessing its Menlo Park building and records.

The church also agreed to pay his family’s health insurance through the end of 2020 and allow the family to live in the rectory rentfree until Jan. 15.

In a statement to this news organization in April when he was placed on leave, Dutton- Gillett said: “This is a very painful time for me, and particularly for my family. I have a deep love for the Trinity community, and they for me, and I know that this is painful for them, as well. I regret that deeply.”

The church said it has received a check from DuttonGillett for $52,000.

According to a now-removed Trinity webpage, Dutton- Gillett’s father was an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ for more than half a century. The biographical sketch said Dutton- Gillett discovered the Episcopal Church while attending Michigan State University.

It said he earned a master’s degree at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and that he started working at

St. Paul’s Cathedral in Detroit in 1991. He became a priest in 1992 at St. Peter’s Church in Ladue, Missouri.

D ut t on- Gi l le t t t hen served as a rector at a church near Chicago and another one in Tennessee before joining the Menlo Park congregation in 2009.

Trinity Church, a block from Menlo-Atherton High School, has been part of the community since the 1880s, according to the Menlo Park Historical Association. It is the third-oldest church still operating in the community.