Marin Developer at Center of Church ‘Spanking’ Sex Scandal

A prominent Marin real estate developer is at the center of a sex scandal that involves one of the West Coast’s most storied Catholic Churches.

William McLaughlin allegedly spanked a female employee with a wooden paddle and coerced her into having sexual intercourse in the sanctuary of the landmark National Shrine of St. Francis Assisi in San Francisco's North Beach, the New York Daily News reports.

McLaughlin was serving as chairman of the shrine's volunteer program at the time of the alleged incident.

Church officials fired him after investigating the allegations, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Matier and Ross report.

The allegations surfaced last week when a woman suspected of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the church filed a claim against the church alleging sexual harassment.

Jhona Mathews, 33, worked for the church as an administrative assistant. She says she was fired after breaking off her relationship with McLaughlin, who is in his 60s.

A police report alleging Matthews stole from the church was filed days before she filed a sexual harassment claim against the church, KGO news reports.

Mathews has a history of credit card fraud, the church alleges.

Mathews first met McLaughlin when she was working for a carpet company brought into the church for renovations.

Soon after being offered a job at the church in February 2012, McLaughlin started sending Mathews sexually explicit photos and emails, her complaint alleges.

Mathews has denied the embezzlement accusations through her attorney, Sandra Ribera, who acknowledged her client has a “checkered past.”

Ribera said McLaughlin took advantage of her client, a single mom with a 2-year-old daughter, telling the Chronicle "She felt she had no choice.”

"He was dangling her livelihood over her head, and she had a daughter to feed."

Ribera described the lurid details of the alleged abuse in an interview with KGO news.

"Paddling with the wooden paddle, getting spanked in the sacristy of the shrine of St. Francis, which Catholics know, it's just appalling to hear as a Catholic and having sexual intercourse in the shrine of St. Francis," Ribera said.

McLaughlin, an animal rights activist, led a 2005 effort to airlift stranded pets in of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.