Saved Souls

Here is a nice little story from the Palm Beach Post. I applaud you Ms. Brown for not only turning around your life but others also. God bless.

Open Post- Freedom Watch, Jo's Cafe,

STUART — Penance for Anne Marie Brown has been two jobs and three hours of sleep four nights a week over the past year.

The 23-year-old ex-bookkeeper said she has juggled the frantic work pace with substance-abuse support meetings, counseling sessions and community service to show herself and everyone else that she is not the same person who supported a drug habit by embezzling more than $35,000 from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Stuart.

Her journey of self-improvement touched several people along the way, including her attorney, the church's new priest and a Boca Raton fire captain. On Tuesday, her progress so impressed Circuit Judge Larry Schack in the Martin County Courthouse that he honored a plea agreement that will keep Brown out of prison.

"I have a feeling I won't ever see you here again," Schack told her.

Instead of spending years in prison on charges of second-degree grand theft, the North Palm Beach woman will spend two years on house arrest and another three years on probation.

Investigators arrested Brown in January 2005 after they found she had transferred about $18,000 into her bank account from St. Joseph's account. She also forged checks worth another $17,000 from the church's account.

Her arrest came about four months after the church's former priest, the Rev. Alden Christopher Allen, left amid allegations he used the church's money to buy pornographic DVDs and sex toys on eBay. The state attorney's office decided not to prosecute Allen after officials with the Diocese of Palm Beach told investigators there were no legal restrictions on how Allen, as church priest, elected to spend money from collection plates.

The new pastor, the Rev. Gavin Badway, and church officers called deputies after they discovered irregularities in Brown's accounts.

Brown told authorities she had used most of the money to support a cocaine habit that cost her thousands of dollars a week, according to arrest records. By the time the investigation unfolded, she had already been arrested on drug charges in St. Lucie County and had been through a drug rehabilitation program.

Bob Gentile, Brown's attorney, asked Schack to delay Brown's sentencing last year so she could show the court she had something to contribute to society.

For the past year, Brown has been working two jobs to repay her grandfather for restitution he made to the church, she told Schack. By day, she works at Starbucks. In the afternoons, she works at an addiction recovery center, helping former addicts put their lives back together.

Her two jobs merged one day last year when Boca Raton Fire Rescue Capt. Daniel Coine came to her with a request. Coine and his wife, two regular customers at Starbucks who had befriended Brown and knew about her past, told her they had discovered their 16-year-old daughter was taking drugs. They asked her to talk to her.

Brown was able to reach the girl in a way no one else had, Coine said, and his daughter is now drug-free. Coine was so grateful to Brown that he walked into a courtroom in full uniform Tuesday to speak on her behalf.

"I'm not coming here in uniform to try to impress the court with my position," he told Schack. "I came to say that I would stake my reputation and put my job on the line to vouch for this young lady."

Brown, who also received a letter of support from Badway and was flanked by a dozen other supporters Tuesday, said she plans to continue her work helping former addicts. She told Schack she knows she can't erase her wrongs, but said she was grateful he gave her a chance for atonement.

"I've changed so much as a person," she said.