Office manager of Paso Robles church sentenced to prison for embezzling almost $300k

A former office employee of Life Community Church in Paso Robles will serve prison time after being sentenced Monday for embezzling nearly $300,000 from the church.

Claire Catlin Eastin was sentenced by San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen to a state prison term of two years and eight months after she pleaded no contest in September to two felony counts of grand theft by embezzlement.

Also as a part of her plea agreement, Eastin, 51, will be required to pay restitution to Life Community Church in the sum of $177,577, according to court records.

Chief deputy district attorney Jerret Gran said Monday that the prison sentence was the result of an aggravated white collar crime sentencing enhancement found true by the court for showing a pattern of felony conduct involving the taking of more than $100,000.

Gran said Monday the prison sentence was appropriate given the large sum taken from the church.

Eastin’s attorney, Brian Buckley, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Embezzler used church ATM card for personal purchases

A San Luis Obispo County Probation Department report states that Life Community Church suffered a total loss of $294,351, beginning just days after Eastin was given access to an ATM/debit card linked to the church’s checking account.

An audit showed that she fraudulently used the card for personal purchases between January 2012 and December 2017, the report said.

The report states that Eastin had worked at the church since 2006.

According to the report, Eastin told a probation officer that while she is “humbled and ashamed of my actions, I’m relieved that my crime was discovered.”

“I’m sorry for the hurt that my actions have caused my family and the church,” Eastin said, according to the report, noting that she has completed a 12-step theft program, has begun repaying the church and is under the care of both a psychologist and a psychiatrist. “I am eager to get this sentence over and fulfill the punishment the law requires.”

While the probation officer noted the theft required planning and sophistication, Eastin also had a previously clean criminal record and voluntarily acknowledged wrongdoing at an early stage in the criminal process.

Church members hope prison time ‘will truly change her’

At Monday’s hearing, written victims’ statements from six members of the church were read aloud in court by members of the District Attorney’s Victim’s Assistance and two of the church employees.

“I trusted you completely, and loved you as a dear sister in the Lord,” pastor Keith Newsome wrote. “You were so close with the people of Life Community. You knew how much they sacrificed to see God’s kingdom advance, but instead you took much of their sacrifices to support your kingdom.”

Newsome wrote that he has since forgiven Eastin, and prays that she can “move forward through true repentance, and not just remorse.”

Mike Steinbock, a church elder, wrote to urge the court and probation officials to require Eastin serve her full sentence and maximum restitution, as well as to require that she relocate out of North County upon her release.

“It is very hard on the church to have to go public with this failure on our part to see the embezzlement for so long, especially from someone we trusted so deeply,” Steinbock wrote. “We only hope that her time in state prison will truly change her, and that others in the future will not be deceived and betrayed as we have been.”

Following Monday’s hearing, Eastin was taken into the custody of the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office for transfer to state officials for prison placement.