Church funds reported taken

A woman accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from her former Newport Beach church pleaded not guilty Monday, days after authorities extradited her from her new home in New Hampshire.

Cheryl Lean (pronounced Lee-Ann) Granger, 45, is charged with eight felonies, each with multiple sentencing enhancements related to her 3 1/2 -year stint as the bookkeeper for Newport Harbor Lutheran Church. Prosecutors say between September 2002 and February 2006 Granger addressed more than 170 checks to her husband, Richard Granger Jr., their business, her credit cards, and herself by forging officials’ signatures. The church lost about $320,000 in revenue, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Yvette Patko. The husband, a former UCI professor now working at Dartmouth College, has not been charged. He and Granger moved to New Hampshire in 2006, the Associated Press reported.

Officials said Granger capitalized on a turbulent time for the church. The community was reeling from losing its pastor to cancer and transitioning in the new pastor, church treasurer James Miller said. The second pastor left shortly after arriving, again leaving the church’s focus elsewhere, he said.

“Because of distractions [with the] first minister and new minister who only stayed a couple of years, there was an opportunity and somebody took advantage of it,” Miller said.

There are only about 200 people in the ministry and the church can only afford to pay for a pastor and a bookkeeper, Miller said. Newport Harbor Lutheran is mired in debt, he said.

“There were accounts that were supposed to be paid that weren’t being paid. We are working with creditors and it is a sensitive situation. We are trying to straighten our boat up,” he said.

Bail was set at $500,000, and Granger must prove any posted bail came from a legitimate source, Patko said. Officials said she faces up to nine years and eight months in prison if convicted.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.