Las Vegas priest reports to Texas prison

A Roman Catholic priest from Las Vegas surrendered Friday at a federal prison in Texas to start serving three years and one month for siphoning $650,000 from his northwest Las Vegas parish to support his video poker habit.

Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe, 59, turned himself in as required at a satellite camp adjacent to La Tuna correctional institution in the Texas-New Mexico border town of Anthony, a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman said.

"Camps are considered nonsecured facilities, meaning they don't have secured fencing or perimeter patrol," said the spokesman, Edmond Ross. "They are obviously supervised by staff."

Inmates could choose to walk away from the camp, near El Paso, but Ross said they would face prosecution for escaping.

Camps are the least secure facilities in the federal prison system. Inmates sleep on bunk beds in open dormitories and have recreational opportunities.

"It is common for first-time, white-collar offenders to be put in a camp," said McAuliffe's lawyer, Margaret Stanish. "It's still a significant restraint on freedom despite the perception that it's not hard time."

At McAuliffe's request, U.S. District Judge James Mahan had recommended that he be assigned to a correctional institution in Lompoc, Calif., but prison officials have the authority to place inmates where they see fit.

Ross said all inmates are required to work if physically able. He said camp inmates typically work on the landscape detail or in food service. They also have access to educational and religious services.

"All inmates have access to religious programming, no matter what facility they're at in the Bureau of Prisons," Ross said.

According to an inmate handbook available on the Bureau of Prisons website, the La Tuna camp has a recreation office and hobby shop.

"The recreation department offers structured intramural, extramural programs in softball, basketball, volleyball and tennis," according to the handbook. "The athletic facilities available include a weight-lifting area, track, baseball field, tennis court and hand-ball courts. The recreation department also provides a hobbycraft shop where inmates are allowed to make leathercraft items."

The correctional institution has Catholic and Protestant chaplains, according to the handbook. Gambling is prohibited.

A population report on the Bureau of Prisons website, last updated Thursday, showed that the La Tuna camp had 329 inmates.

Ross said most inmates transition to some type of community corrections facility, such as a halfway house, toward the end of their sentence.

McAuliffe was sentenced in January to prison, three years of supervised release and $650,000 in restitution after pleading guilty in October to three federal mail fraud charges.

He admitted falsifying financial documents sent in 2008, 2009 and 2010 to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in San Francisco.

McAuliffe, a popular pastor known as Father Kevin, expressed "guilt, shame and self-loathing" for siphoning increasing amounts of money over eight years from votive candle, prayer and gift shop funds at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church.

Prosecutor Christina Brown said at sentencing that McAuliffe was able to hide his embezzlement because he was a signatory to financial statements to the Las Vegas diocese and San Francisco archdiocese.

The Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas said McAuliffe had complete control of parish activities and finances from 2002 to 2010. The parish, with more than 8,000 families in the Summerlin neighborhood, is one of the largest Roman Catholic congregations in Nevada.

Las Vegas diocese administrators say McAuliffe was suspended and stripped of ministerial duties after FBI agents questioned him last May about missing church funds. The congregation wasn't immediately told about the investigation, however, while church officials issued pleas for patience and asked parishioners to drop a letter-writing support campaign.

Mahan told McAuliffe he betrayed people who depended on him. The judge referred to a parish rift, noting that he received 100 letters supporting McAuliffe, but also received a stack of letters saying McAuliffe should be punished.

The 37-month sentence was midway between a 33-month minimum and 41-month maximum recommended by federal probation officials.

Bishop Joseph Pepe, head of the regional church administration since 2001, was in Rome this week and unavailable for comment, diocese spokeswoman Rachel Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson released a diocese statement saying church administrators were increasing audits and adding financial controls at Las Vegas-area parishes, schools and ministries.

The diocese said it circulated warnings about "the increasing financial pressures people are facing in today's environment, the opportunities for theft as well as the rationalization that occurs in individuals perpetrating such crimes." The diocese statement did not say whether officials were seeking McAuliffe's dismissal as a priest.

Review-Journal reporter Carri Geer Thevenot contributed to this report. Contact Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com.