Church suing former teacher

A Newport Beach church is suing a prominent former UC Irvine professor whose ex-wife bilked more than $300,000 from the church over the course of four years while she worked there as a bookkeeper.

The man’s attorney claims that his client, who now teaches at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, is nothing more than an “absent-minded professor” who wasn’t in on his ex-wife’s scam.

“We’re not trying to punish anybody as much as trying to get whole again,” said the Rev. Bradley Steinstra, pastor of Newport Harbor Lutheran. “It’s sad that we need to pursue this ... it takes a lot of time and energy away from church’s mission.”

Cheryl “Lean” (pronounced Lee-ann) Granger pleaded guilty in 2008 to forging signatures of church board members on more than 170 checks over the course of four years. She is serving a six-year prison sentence.

Cheryl Granger’s ex-husband, Richard Granger Jr., was a professor in both the computer science and cognitive science departments at UCI and was the director of the Brain Engineering Laboratory there.

He was named the first director of Dartmouth College’s Neukom Institute for Computational Science in May 2006. Richard Granger still teaches at Dartmouth, school officials said Wednesday, but he no longer leads the Neukom Institute.

Newport Harbor Lutheran Church claims in its lawsuit that Cheryl Granger began stealing from the church coffers while its then-pastor, the Rev. Ralph Monge, was suffering from terminal brain cancer.

In court fillings, the church also claims that Richard Granger knowingly received stolen money from the church and the funds were deposited into the couple’s joint bank accounts.

Copies of checks from the church made out to Richard Granger, and allegedly endorsed by him, are included in the church’s legal complaint.

When discrepancies in the church accounts were discovered, the couple abruptly moved to New Hampshire, according to court fillings.

Richard Granger’s attorney, David Grant, said his client let his wife handle the finances, and had no idea she was stealing from the church.

Cheryl Granger forged her husband’s signature on the checks, Grant said.

Richard Granger was never charged in connection with the stolen church funds and the couple divorced after the theft came to light, Grant said.

“For some reason, they are trying to drag a good Dartmouth professor through the shoals,” Grant.

Cheryl Granger was ordered to repay the church as part of her sentence, but it’s not likely she will ever be able to give the church back all of its money from behind bars, Steinstra said.