(AP) A former chancellor for the Archdiocese of Omaha has been charged with two felony counts accusing him of stealing a total of more than $285,000 from a former priest and from a Springfield, Nebraska parish.
The Reverend Michael Gutgsell turned himself in to police on Friday and was briefly jailed before being released on his own recognizance. He is charged with attempted theft and abuse of a vulnerable adult.
Police say Gutgsell admitted to taking $106,000 from his former parish, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Springfield, as well as taking $180,000 from the bank accounts of retired Omaha priest Theodore Richling, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s at the time. He died in December 2019.