A nun in western New York faces a criminal charge of grand larceny for allegedly stealing $128,000 from two rural parishes where she worked.

Sister Mary Anne Rapp pleaded not guilty in court Monday night to a second-degree grand larceny charge, according to NBC affiliate WHEC in Rochester, N.Y. Rapp, 67, is a nun with the Sisters of St. Francis and has been working at St. Mark's and St. Mary's Catholic Church in Holley, N.Y., WHEC reported. Holley is west of Rochester.

"She's been a nun for a very long time, been a very good person, never in any trouble before," said Rapp's attorney, James Harrington, according to The Associated Press. "She did great work wherever she was assigned."

Officials believe Rapp spent the money at casinos, and she reportedly had previously sought treatment for a gambling addiction.

"She spent 9 1/2 months in an in-patient treatment program and has maintained her recovery in the year since," said Sister Edith Wyss, provincial minister for the Sisters of St. Francis, according to the AP.

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Orleans County District Attorney Joseph Cardone in western New York said the embezzled money amounts to $128,000, WHEC reported.

A routine audit had found "some irregularities" and Rapp is accused of taking the money between 2006 and 2010, said a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, according to the AP.

The spokesman, Kevin Keenan, could not say how the alleged thefts had affected the day-to-day parish operations.

"These are smaller parishes in a rural part of the diocese," Keenan said, according to the AP. "Regardless of the size, this would be a significant amount of money for any parish."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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A New Jersey man who skipped town after he was accused of bilking money from nuns was captured in Las Vegas on Monday, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.

In November, Adriano Sotomayor, 54, was indicted by federal prosecutors on 13 counts of mail fraud. He allegedly scammed more than $439,000 from the Dominican Sisters of the Rosary of Fatima and others between May 2009 and June 2011 through a bogus will scheme, according to the FBI.

The Dominican Sisters of the Rosary of Fatima operates out of Puerto Rico and has members in cities in the Philadelphia-South Jersey area.

Sotomayor allegedly persuaded an elderly nun that she had been named a beneficiary in a will of an estate estimated at $2.1 million, the indictment said.

He reportedly was able to lure the nun by telling her the man notifying her of the will was a priest, and the person leaving the will was a parishioner.

Sotomayor, according to prosecutors, induced the nun to send him $255,379 from May 30, 2009 to February 4, 2010 by telling her she needed to pay taxes and other fees associated with the bogus will.

He also allegedly targeted other victims as well with a similar scam. Some of the money was sent by wire transfers to Atlantic City casinos, according to prosecutors.

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The man convicted in the deadly Bristow, Va., accident that killed a nun was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Police said Carlos Martinelly-Montano, in the United States illegally, was drunk when he slammed his car into another car in 2010.  The crash killed Sister Denise Mosier and injured two other nuns.  He was convicted of felony murder in October.

In court Friday, Montano pleaded at length for mercy, New4's Julie Carey reported. He told the judge he has reformed in prison and hopes to become a pastor.

The incident was Montano's third drunken driving offense and happened while he was awaiting deportation.

In August of 2010, the three nuns in the car were headed to a retreat at the Saint Benedict Monastery in Bristow, about five miles away from the scene of the crash on Bristow Road near Wright Lane.  Investigators said Martinelly-Montano, coming in the opposite direction, crossed over the center line and crashed into the nuns' car head on.

The other nuns in the vehicle, Sisters Connie Ruth Lupton and Charlotte Lange, were seriously injured in the crash.

Martinelly-Montano has twice before been convicted of drunken driving, and was awaiting a deportation hearing at the time of the accident.

The fatal crash prompted Prince William County officials to sue the federal government to explain why Martinelly-Montano was not in detention for his prior crimes and immigration status.

Montano faces up to 70 years in prison.

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