80-year-old nun sentenced to prison for stealing thousands from elementary school

An 80-year-old nun was sentenced to one year and a day in prison on Monday after admitting to stealing more than $830,000 from an elementary school where she previously worked.

“I have sinned, I have broken the law, and I have no excuses,” Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, the former principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Calif., told the judge, according to the Los Angeles Times.

She referred to her crime as “a violation of my vows, the commandments, the law, and above all the sacred trust that so many had placed in me,” the news outlet noted.

U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II struggled to settle on a sentence for Kreuper, expressing that several students and parents in the community had forgiven Kreuper for stealing the school’s tuition money to fund her vacations to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, while others demanded Kreuper be punished, the Times reported.

“I haven’t slept well in God knows how long,” Wright reportedly told a Zoom audience during the hearing. He later added that he could not honor prosecutors’ call for a two-year sentence because he did not want to judge Kreuper solely on “the worst thing that she’s done in her life.”

Kreuper served as St. James Catholic School’s principal for 28 years and retired in 2018. In July, she pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering, sharing that she stole tuition checks to spend during casino outings and then attempted to cover it up.

Prosecutors argued that with the money Kreuper stole, 14 students could have had their tuition paid for 10 years. They also noted that the school lacked new books, classroom supplies and field trips as a result, the Times noted.

“To know that she had been taking money from my parents and my peers’ parents the whole time I was there is extremely shocking, and it sways me away from the Catholic Church,” Julija Garunkstis, who previously attended the school, reportedly said. “Trust shouldn’t be broken like that.”

Following her sentence, Kreuper said she promises to follow “more closely in Christ’s footsteps,” the Times noted.

“I was wrong, and I am profoundly sorry for the pain and the suffering that I have caused so many people,” she reportedly told Wright. “I apologize for the public scandal, the embarrassment and the financial burden that I have placed on the sisters in my religious community, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, St. James School, the parishioners, parents and students who placed their trust in me.” 

Updated at 9:25 a.m.