"Certainly we believe this sudden conclusion was Divine intervention. The Lord has blessed our congregation in so many ways, purging resentment and contempt for our persecutors from our hearts, instilling us with a renewed spirit of mission and outreach, and giving us a growing and deepening love for our Lord and one another. We have experienced a wonderful flourishing of faith under Bishops Minns and Bena in the midst of this intense and expensive persecution."



A parish response responded to Fr. Armstrong's plea agreement, said this: "Today our Rector, The Rev. Donald Armstrong, accepted a plea agreement offered by the Pueblo District Attorney which precludes the pending trial and begins to bring to conclusion this long and torturous ordeal for our congregation and the larger Christian Community.
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"Specifically, Father Armstrong made an Alford plea, which is a special plea used when there is no admission of guilt or basis of fact for the charge, but the charge, in this case a misdemeanor, is accepted to take advantage of an offer, in this case to reduce the original 20 Felony counts to a single misdemeanor.
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"We are grateful to Don and Jessie for their courage, strength, and witness during this time of personal persecution. Over these last years' God has blessed us greatly as individuals and as a congregation.
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"In preparation for the now canceled trial we have become convinced even more strongly that controversies within the larger denominational church were the catalyst for the Diocese's investigation and complaint, for the purpose of silencing our bold and successful defense of orthodoxy through our parish's life, discipline, and teaching ministry.
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"We believe that the courts are not the place to deal with theological differences, and that to have allowed this dispute to continue to be played out in the news by going to trial would have served only to diminish all Christian witness. With this plea offer now in place such further harm to the entire church in this already difficult age for Christianity will be prevented.
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"We further believe the disparity between the magnitude of charges made against Father Armstrong by the Episcopal Diocese and the final content of the plea agreement vindicates not only Father Armstrong, but also clearly affirms our confidence that we ran an effective and well managed church in our days at the helm of Grace & St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, and continue to do so at St. George's Anglican Church.
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"With only a restitution hearing to be held in the distant future, this essentially concludes this long and expensive attempt to silence orthodox resistance to theological innovations in the Episcopal Church. We are thankful we can now move forward under our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, into a future productive for the Kingdom of God."



The Rt. Rev. Robert J. O'Neill, Bishop of Colorado, said it brings healing to all those harmed by Armstrong's actions. "It brings closure to a sad chapter in the life of the diocese."



FOOTNOTE to this story adding further clarification from Fr. Armstrong.

Plea agreements are always slightly messy and always a matter of give and take. Bottom line here is that they started with 20 Felony counts and we walked out of the court room with a misdemeanor, not to mention avoiding a trial in which no wins from the slug fest, and in which you risk the jury spitting the baby no matter how rock solid your case is, just because they like the prosecutor or something.

So,on Friday a fictitious 21st felony count that had no basis in fact or history was created and added to address the original grand jury indictment and to assure proper jurisdiction. I plead no contest to that and it was differed. That was a procedural means to get to the real end, a misdemeanor. A fictitious misdemeanor was added, also without content-basis in fact or history, to which I entered an Alford plea...in other words, not an admission of any guilt but to accept the offer to reduce 20 felony counts to single misdemeanor.

So, long story short: 20 felony counts reduced to a single misdemeanor. I still maintain my total innocence, but have avoided a lengthy trial in which everyone looses, and put an end to this religious embarrassment.

NEW ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

By David W. Virtue
Sept. 20, 2010

Essentially the truth is the Diocese had no case against Don Armstrong. The 20 felony charges were without base and everyone knew it. To make it go away the state withdrew these outrageous charges so Armstrong could cop a misdemeanor plea, a slap on the wrist. The original charges were pressed for by Bishop O’Neill who hated Armstrong with a passion because the orthodox priest opposed everything the revisionist O’Neill stood for and he tried to take his parish out of the diocese and TEC.

The issue is no money was ever missing and the wardens who dealt with compensation and benefits gave scholarships to his children, everyone knew about it, and the money was distributed on checks signed by the wardens, recorded on the books and included in their audits...which is why the prosecutor offered to reduce 20 felonies to a single misdemeanor.

O’Neill was successful in getting the property of Grace and St. Stephens back but the toll financially on the diocese has been enormous.

St. George’s Anglican Church spent $1 million defending itself from O’Neill’s neurotic obsession with Armstrong, and the diocese spent $3 million. The Episcopal Church spent even more on the property case flying attorneys in and out...not to mention what they got the police and prosecution to defend...over $5 million was spent among them all.

The leaders of St. George’s Anglican (Armstrong’s new parish with over 700 members) thought so little of the charges that they kept him on as their priest. As I understand it the misdemeanor charge amounts to a (large) speeding ticket fine.

Dennis Hartley, Armstrong's attorney, said the charges were reduced to one count of misdemeanor theft, which means no jail time for Armstrong. Hartley said a restitution hearing will be held probably in January.

Hartley said 19 of the 20 counts were dismissed due to the state statute of limitations, which is three years in criminal cases. Hartley indicated it was unlikely Armstrong will have to pay anything near the $392,000 of theft alleged by the Pueblo District Attorney's office.

"There was a real question of what could be proved against Don Armstrong (at trial)," Hartley said.

Armstrong agreed to the plea bargain, Hartley said, because, with 20 counts, it was a toss up how a jury would react to each one. "If you get a bad jury or bad breaks at trial, you can get an adverse verdict," Hartley said.

Hartley is happy about the plea bargain.

"It's about as close to a dismissal as we could get," he said.

"The Rev. Robert J. O'Neill said it brings healing to all those harmed by Armstrong's actions. “It brings closure to a sad chapter in the life of the diocese."

People will say the same thing when O'Neill leaves the Diocese of Colorado.

The following link will take you to Armstrong's Plea agreement:

http://www.graceststephensepiscopal.org/Assets/Armstrong_Plea_Agreement_20100917.pdf