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December 18, 2012

Felony charges filed against church's ex-business manager

By Mark Schlachtenhaufen Edmond Sun / CNHI News Service

EDMOND, Okla. — Oklahoma County prosecutors have filed formal felony charges against a former business manager accused of embezzling $109,454 from an Edmond church.

On Monday, Jenny Monroe, spokeswoman for the Edmond Police Department said the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office filed felony charges against Bill Dwight Coyle, 62, of Edmond. Future court dates were not yet posted on the Oklahoma State Courts Network online database.

Monroe said on Friday Edmond detectives presented information for eight felony counts to the DA’s office in regards to a complaint from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 924 S. Littler Ave. Efforts to gain comment from church staff Monday evening were not successful.

According to the incident report, filed by Edmond Police Officer Jonathan Cramer in July, Coyle was a deacon and administrator at the church. It stated he was no longer employed by the church at that time.

Identification information of the reporting party and five witnesses was redacted in the police report. It lists incident property as $109,454 in cash and a church-owned 256 MG USB flash drive.

Monroe said the Police Department worked jointly with the white collar crimes division of the DA’s office and filed paperwork seeking the felony charges after an extensive five-month investigation. The department pursued eight counts of Computer Crimes Act violations against Coyle, she said.

When reached by phone, Coyle was given an opportunity to state his side of the story.

“I have no comment,” he told The Edmond Sun on Monday evening.

Coyle confirmed he has retained an Oklahoma City attorney. Contact information for the attorney was not available before press time.

In the report Cramer stated he was told an audit, ordered after concerns arose regarding missing money, found that $109,454 was missing. Cramer stated that he was told the defendant was the church’s business manager at the time of the alleged embezzlement.

According to the reporting party the defendant agreed to make restitution to the church for an unspecified amount before the audit was completed, Cramer stated. The audit revealed an amount of missing funds considerably more than that which was originally known to be missing, the report stated.

Monroe deferred further inquiries about the case to the DA’s office, which was closed for the day when the information was received. The developments conclude the Police Department’s investigation, Monroe said.

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