Priest in Wisconsin charged with theft

Sep 28, 2010
by Tom Gallagher

The news comes from a Madison, Wisc. NBC affiliate:

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced that on September 28, 2010, attorneys for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, acting as special prosecutors for Jefferson County, filed a summons and criminal complaint in Jefferson County Circuit Court against Thomas Marr (age 64), now of Madison, Wisconsin, alleging a count of theft in a business setting and a count of theft by fraud.

It's the usual story -- priest takes money from parish accounts.

What's interesting here is that the Wisconsin state attorney general is pursuing the case. Here in Connecticut, the popular state attorney general Richard Blumenthal has never pursued million dollar plus priest thefts, though he's had plenty of opportunities in the diocese of Bridgeport, Conn.

It remains a mystery as to why Blumenthal has sat on his hands for so many years on this particular type of theft. Blumenthal is the Democratic candidate for the U.S. senate.

To be sure, Fr. Marr is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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