Bridget Coates, the former principal of St. Thomas More Catholic School in Washington, D.C., was sentenced Aug. 3 to 30 months in prison for stealing at least $175,000 from a fund that was created to provide school-related services and activities to students.
Coates, who resigned as principal of St. Thomas More School in 2018, admitted to stealing the funds between 2012 and 2017 from the school’s Home School Association that gets its money from parent contributions and fundraisers.
She pled guilty April 4 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a charge of wire fraud.
In addition to her two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, Coates must also complete three years of supervised release, pay $175,000 in restitution and pay an identical amount in a forfeiture money judgment.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said in a statement after the sentencing, “We are grateful for the efforts of District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in investigating and prosecuting this criminal conduct. We pray that Ms. Coates’s acceptance of responsibility will be a step toward healing for all those impacted by her criminal conduct.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the principal “devised a scheme to steal from the school’s Home School Association, an organization affiliated with the school that supported student services and activities.”
“As the school principal, Coates had access to the Home School Association’s checks and could use her discretion to pay expenditures for only school-related purposes,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in an Aug. 3 statement after the sentencing was announced. “Coates, however, betrayed the trust and authority placed in her and engaged in a pattern of purchasing personal goods and services with the funds. Over the time period, she wrote approximately 66 unauthorized checks and deposited at least $175,000 into her personal bank account. Among other things, she used the funds to purchase designer fashion from luxury brands and to help her qualify for a home-mortgage loan.”
The archdiocese in its statement stressed, “Responsible stewardship of the financial gifts generously entrusted to the schools of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is a responsibility that the archdiocese takes very seriously. Anyone who may suspect financial or other misconduct involving any archdiocesan employee, office, or other setting is encouraged to make a report to the archdiocese.”
