Retired pastor charged with stealing more than $350K from North Side church

The retired pastor from a North Side Presbyterian church is accused of stealing more than $357,000 from it.

The Rev. Wayne Peck, 70, of Highland Park, is charged with theft and receiving stolen property. He turned himself in to detectives from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office on Tuesday.

His attorney, Efrem M. Grail, said “It is shocking that the Pittsburgh Presbytery has chosen to resolve an honest dispute in this manner.”

According to the criminal complaint, Peck was hired by Community House Presbyterian Church, which currently has about 50 members, in 1977 and served in that role until his retirement in March 2017.

However, investigators with the DA’s office were contacted by representatives of the Pittsburgh Presbytery and Community House Presbyterian Church after financial irregularities were discovered in the fall of 2019.

According to the complaint, on the day before Peck’s retirement, he changed the authorized signers on a bank signature card for the church and its Community House organization to include only himself, his wife and another member of the board, preventing access to anyone else at the church.

An analysis of bank records showed that, even after Peck’s retirement, large checks payable to him were issued monthly from the Community House bank account. They totaled more than $357,000, with many of the memo lines showing they were reimbursement for expenses.

The checks were deposited into accounts owned by Peck and his wife, Molly, and the money was used for their living expenses, including their mortgage, utilities, shopping, travel and vehicles, officials said.