An Omaha Catholic nun who was sentenced to prison for embezzlement from the church is seeking to withdraw her guilty plea and either be resentenced or take her case to trial.Sister Barbara Markey did not enter the plea knowingly, her attorneys contend in motions filed in Douglas County District Court.
The attorneys also argue that the sentencing judge, Thomas Otepka, was unduly influenced by a letter from the Archdiocese of Omaha, and that the letter violated an agreement that had settled a civil suit between Markey and the archdiocese.
The motions were filed Monday. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10.
Such motions are rarely granted. J. William Gallup, one of Markey's attorneys, acknowledged that on Tuesday, saying: "It's always tough to get a plea withdrawn. But sometimes judges will let you have a re-hearing on certain facts."
Otepka had sentenced Markey, 73, on July 11 to three to five years in prison for theft by deception of over $1,500. In civil suits, the archdiocese had accused Markey, former director of the Catholic Family Life Office in Omaha, of embezzling $820,000.
Prosecutors had accused Markey of stealing more than $250,000 from the archdiocese, including at least $76,000 in payments and checks made to Ameristar Casino and cash advances of $80,000.
Markey's attorneys had said she was the victim of a dispute with the archdiocese over how she spent money from a widely used Catholic marriage preparation program, called FOCCUS, which she co-wrote, and from her work as a clinical psychologist.
Markey paid $125,000 restitution to settle the civil suits. As part of the settlement, the archdiocese agreed not to oppose a sentence of probation in the criminal case.
Markey has continued to dispute the amount. In the motions filed Monday, her attorneys said that in entering her guilty plea, Markey believed she was admitting only to taking $6,000 by misrepresenting to whom the money was being paid.
The motions also say that an Internal Revenue Service investigation, conducted after the guilty plea, of Markey's financial records found that she had filed accurate and complete tax returns that did not reflect unlawful taking of archdiocesan funds.
Her attorneys contend that a letter from the Rev. Greg Baxter, who was chancellor of the Omaha Archdiocese during the investigation of Markey, violated the settlement agreement by including allegations to which Markey had not admitted.
A copy of the letter was not included in the motion filing.
Baxter said Tuesday that the letter was sent in response to a State Probation Office request as part of Markey's pre-sentence investigation.
Baxter said he wrote that the archdiocese had settled all civil actions against Markey for $125,000 and that the archdiocese would not oppose a sentence of probation, if that's what the State Probation Office recommended.
Baxter said that was in keeping with the settlement agreement. He declined to comment further on the letter.
The State Probation Office did recommend probation. But Otepka, saying such a sentence would depreciate the seriousness of the crime and promote disrespect of the law, sentenced Markey to prison. She could be paroled in 18 months at the earliest.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Markey was fully informed at her plea hearing of her rights, the possible sentence for the crime and the fact that, in the end, the judge decides the sentence.
"The defendant doesn't like the sentence that she got," Kleine said. "I don't think there's a legal provision to change it."
Markey remained at the Douglas County Jail on Tuesday pending a transfer to the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York.
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