Colorado Springs: Police raid Grace Church & St. Stephen's

November 26, 2008
LANCE BENZEL and TOM ROEDER
THE GAZETTE

Colorado Springs police detectives raided Grace Church and St. Stephen's Wednesday morning to seize paper financial records and computers as part of a theft investigation launched more than a year ago.

More than 20 officers cordoned off the block-long church complex at 601 N. Tejon St., evicting its controversial pastor, the Rev. Donald Armstrong, who wandered the sidewalk in clerical garb, a copy of the warrant clutched in his right hand.

The raid focused on records tied to allegations from the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado that Armstrong embezzled $400,000 from Grace & St. Stephens Episcopal Church, the congregation he headed before he and his followers broke away in early 2007 to affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North American.

Colorado Springs Police Lt. David Whitlock said officers were searching for evidence of theft and fraud. the rest