Bodies were still buried beneath the mud of the Oso, Wash., hillside in May 2014 when pastor Gary Ray funneled $30,000 in cash - donations meant for grieving families of the 43 killed - into a church bank account where only he had access. "People were still searching for the dead," said deputy prosecutor Michael Safstrom in court Thursday. "So this is the most glaring contradiction between public words and private deeds. Mr. Ray was the public face of the Oso Community Chapel." The Everett Herald reports Island County Superior Court Judge Alan Hancock sentenced Ray to 18 months in prison Thursday, for a series of swindles that went on for years, totaling over $152,000 stolen from Oso families, collection plates and his own church congregations in Snohomish and Island counties.
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