A former assistant pastor at a California church was sentenced to two years in state prison on Friday for stealing $200,000 from his congregation as its founder was dying, officials said.
Curtis Frank Lemons pleaded guilty in April to two felony counts of grand theft and one of money laundering, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
“This is a sad case. Mr. Lemons stole from a vulnerable victim at a vulnerable time,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Wise said in a statement.
“The patriarch of the Church was near death when this happened at the onset of [COVID-19],” he added. “Mr. Lemons made a terrible decision but has accepted responsibility for his significant theft.”
Lemons, 68, carried out his scheme between January and April of 2021, writing himself a $200,000 cashier’s check from a church bank account the previous December.
The pastor then used the funds from New Progressive Christian Baptist Church in Oxnard to pay for flights, a car, a new phone, dental work, and a new home in Tennessee.
The theft occurred in the midst of the pandemic, when the church was already grappling with how to hold services safely and ongoing health issues befalling the congregation’s founder, Reverend Jesse James Taylor, who died in August of 2021 at age 87.
Lemons, who now resides in Atoka, Tennessee, has also been ordered to pay $200,000 restitution to the church.
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