NJ woman stole nearly $300K from churches — gets no jail time

🙏 A NJ woman admits stealing nearly $300K from 2 Morris County Catholic churches

💸 She avoided jail time, instead gets probation and monthly restitution

🕍 Similar theft case at a Union County synagogue led to federal prison time

A 61-year-old Passaic County woman avoids jail time after admitting to stealing roughly $293,000 while working as a bookkeeper for two Catholic churches in Morris County.

Melissa Rivera, of Haskell, was arrested in March.

In May, she pleaded guilty to two counts of theft.

140 church checks forged over six years, no prison time

Officers found that between May 2018 and May 2024, Rivera wrote 137 checks from accounts at Our Lady of Mountain Parish in Washington Township, totaling $287,487.

She also wrote three checks to herself from Our Lady of Good Counsel parish in Pompton Plains, for a total of $5,242.

Prosecutors had agreed to recommend just under a year in jail as a condition, but that was not part of Rivera’s sentencing on Sept. 21 by Judge Robert Hanna.

Rivera was sentenced to five years' probation.

She was also ordered to pay back all the stolen cash to both churches, at a rate of $800 a month.

Separate NJ synagogue theft case led to federal prison term

A somewhat similar case in Union County involving a woman who had kept the books for a synagogue and stole more than $350,000 was escalated to federal court, due to her complicated way of covering up her theft.

In March, Stacy Margaritondo, of Scotch Plains, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in Newark federal court.

Read More: NJ woman admits stealing $350K from synagogue, covering tracks

Margaritondo was working at the synagogue in Union County for years before writing out phony checks to herself between December 2019 and May 2023, U.S. Attorney John Giordano previously said.

She then used the synagogue’s financial information to take out roughly $300,000 in short-term financing from cash advance companies.

In late July, Margaritondo was sentenced to 21 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, TapInto reported, citing federal court documents.

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