Southern Ill. priest again accused of shoplifting

ST. LOUIS -- A Southern Illinois Roman Catholic priest already on probation for shoplifting butter and a sofa cover now faces a felony theft charge linked to his alleged attempt to pilfer a $28 pipe-smoker's ashtray from an antique store.

Prosecutors in Illinois' St. Clair County charged the Rev. Steven Poole with retail theft on Thursday, three days after police say he walked out of the Keil's Antiques and Gifts in Belleville, Ill., with the green ashtray. The store's owner and another employee followed Poole's PT Cruiser, then summoned officers who arrested the clergyman.

Such cases would usually be tried as a misdemeanor, given that the ashtray is worth far less than the $300 threshold loss that traditionally would make the case a felony. But prosecutors upgraded the charge to a felony because Poole is a repeat offender.

Poole pleaded guilty in March in Illinois' Franklin County to retail theft charges and was sentenced to two years of probation for trying to make off with $3.22 worth of butter and a $60 sofa cover he failed to scan at a Walmart's self-service checkout. Police also said Poole changed a price tag bar code on a memory-foam mattress from $144.88 to $30.88 to get the lower price.

Store workers detained him at the scene and called police, who found Poole in possession of a laptop computer power pack also allegedly pilfered from the store.

Poole also got probation and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service a decade ago on a felony theft case related to his theft of a 5-foot-long, 19th-century English tavern sign depicting a boxer and valued at $900 from an antiques shop in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue. Poole went on leave and pledged to seek counseling, blaming that theft on emotional distress brought on by his mother's death.

Poole, also in 2001, pleaded guilty in Illinois' Clinton County to reduced charges related to a bogus police report in which he claimed to have been beaten and robbed at a church by a stranger who showed up for confession. As part of a deal with prosecutors, Poole was sentenced to six months of court supervision and a $100 fine.

The Belleville News-Democrat reported that the Belleville antique shop's owner was well-acquainted with Poole, who he says frequented his store and had already bought a $250 swordfish, a Falstaff beer sign and a Christmas tree crafted of feathers.

Each time, Jason Buss said, Poole signed a sales tax register using the diocese's identification tax number exempting him from paying the tax.

The Rev. John Myler, a spokesman for the Diocese of Belleville serving 100,000 Catholics in Illinois' 28 southernmost counties, told the News-Democrat that the tax exemption number can only be used for purchases for the parish, not for personal acquisitions. Myler did not immediately return telephone messages left Friday by The Associated Press.

Poole, ordained in June 1996, has served in various parishes in southern Illinois, lately as the sacramental minister at St. Barbara Church in Okawville, according to the diocese's website.