Religious brother accused of stealing $220K from church reaches plea agreement

AMBRIDGE, Pa. — A religious brother at Good Samaritan in Ambridge, Beaver County, who police said admitted to stealing more than $220,000 from parish funds over the course of nine years, reached a plea agreement Tuesday, Channel 11 News has learned.

Thomas Ross was accused of committing the crime last year after church officials became suspicious and put up surveillance cameras to capture his activity.

“These are good people - people (who) grew up in the Depression, who work hard for everything they have, so we're saddened by this,” the Rev. Joe Carr of Good Samaritan said.

Ross, who Carr said was well-known among church members and an integral part of daily business, told police that he stole the money from weekly collections, weekly envelopes and votive candle donations to fund his gambling addiction.

“He is remorseful, sorry for what he's done,” Chad Bowers, Ross’ defense attorney, said.

While Good Samaritan is a small church that struggles to make ends meet every week, Carr said it's all about forgiveness.

“Forgive and move on, that's what we want to do,” he said.

Church officials said they didn’t want to press charges. But since it was such a large sum of money, Beaver County officials said it was their duty to file charges.

reported that both sides reached an agreement in which Ross will undergo three years of house arrest and pay the church back a substantial amount of money.

Ross declined to comment outside of court Tuesday.

Cox Media Group