Mary Jo Pepin PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A woman who burglarized a De Pere church on Christmas Day, 2022, was sentenced Friday to one year in jail.
Mary Jo Pepin, 68, was placed on probation for five years. She was also ordered not to have any contact with the two churches involved in these incidents. She will not have work-release privileges in jail.
Before the sentence was issued, Pepin apologized.
“I’m not a bad person. There’s a lot of good in me. I’ve done a lot of things to help people. I do volunteer work,” she said. “I do have a good chance at a future. I do want to go back to work.”
Pepin also criticized the media for covering the case.
Judge Tammy Jo Hock criticized Pepin for not taking responsibility for her actions and blaming others.
“You’re never accepting responsibility for what you’ve done, for your actions. And that’s why I was so curious today when you said were apologizing when the pre-sentence report is littered with comment about how you are wrongfully charged, you’ve been wrongfully accused, you’re the victim, you’ve been followed, your life is terrible because of all of these things. But, never once, accepting any responsibility for your role in the crime you’ve committed,” the judge said.
According to the criminal complaint, police responded to Our Lady of Lourdes Church in De Pere at about 5 p.m. Christmas Day 2022. Footprints were found, but no one was found in the building. Security video showed images of the same woman believed to be responsible for trespassing incidents on several other dates. Police matched the footprints and coat to items found in her residence.
Prosecutors previously dropped an “entry into a building” count related to an incident at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Green Bay on Nov. 12, 2022.
In January, Pepin was convicted of attempted theft for a February 2023 incident at St. Pius X Church in Appleton. She was placed on probation for three years in that case.
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