Man Accused Of Stealing From Indiana Co. Church Heads To Trial
INDIANA, Pa. (KDKA) -- A man accused of stealing money from the Indiana County church where he worked is headed to trial.
Daniel Yasick was hired to take care of his church's finances, but he is now charged with misappropriating more than $100,000.
Yasick, 37, is now headed to trial for allegedly stealing money from the church while serving as the business manager.
On Tuesday, he waived his preliminary hearing, and so far, no plea deal is in place.
"There's always a chance of plea deal, but at this point it's premature," said Patrick Dougherty, the Indiana County District Attorney. "I don't want to go into that. Obviously, we have to look at all the factors. Our number one goal is to make sure that the church and the parishes are made whole."
The victim, the Church of the Resurrection, is a parish made up of five churches across northern Indiana County.
Investigators say Yasick would document using the money to pay church bills, but would instead write checks for petty cash. In other cases, authorities say he allegedly took money that was supposed to be placed in cemetery deed funds.
In all, more than $108,000 was misappropriated. And as a result, the church owed more than $236,000 to vendors.
Investigators say Yasick is accused of changing church records and also shredded financial documents.
Police, however, were able to recover those shredded documents and put them back together at a lab in Harrisburg.
"What it appears to have been is a meticulous, painstaking - over a period of years - of not only cooking the book, if you will, but also covering his tracks," said Dougherty. "So, that's a very big part of what our auditors were able to uncover."
Dougherty says the suspect is believed to have some of the stolen money on hand. But so far, none has been repaid and it will likely take the church years to recover.
Yasick and his attorney declined to comment on the charges. Yasick is free on $75,000 unsecured bond as he awaits trial.
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