Catholic Charity Director Sentenced for Theft

The former director of a Southold charity stole from the poor as she tried to make herself rich, a Suffolk judge said yesterday.

Before he sentenced Pauline Winterbottom, 53, of Greenport, to 3 to 9 years in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars while running the Catholic not-for-profit agency, Judge Ralph Gazzillo yesterday drew an unfavorable comparison between Winterbottom and a fictitious defender of the underclass.

"You're no Robin Hood," Gazzillo said. "You stole from the poor."

Winterbottom - who used the money to buy lottery tickets - pleaded guilty in April to one count of grand larceny, and has never tried to pay back the Diocese of Rockville Centre, prosecutor Lucie Kwon said. Gazzillo, sitting in Riverhead, yesterday ordered Winterbottom to pay $733,091.72 in restitution.

Prosecutors said Winterbottom stole the money in cash over a five-year period while she was director of North Fork Parish Outreach, which administers charity funds collected by four Roman Catholic parishes on the East End. The organization provides food, clothes and furniture and pays utility bills for the needy.

The theft was discovered during an audit. Kwon said authorities were unable to recover any of the money.

"She spent it all," Kwon said.

Winterbottom's attorney, William Goggins of Mattituck, blamed the diocese for his client's legal problems. He said Winterbottom was hired to run the center, though she had no experience running a business, "lacks a formal education and had a gambling addiction."