A former California assistant pastor has been sentenced to two years in state prison for stealing funds from a church while its founding pastor lay dying, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Curtis Frank Lemons, 68, misappropriated $200,000 from New Progressive Christian Baptist Church in Oxnard, southern California, while working there as the assistant pastor in 2020. Oxnard is about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Lemons’ crime occurred during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and as founding pastor Jesse James Taylor was months away from death.
“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.”
Lemons pleaded guilty in April to two counts of grand theft and one count of money laundering, the district attorney’s office said.
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Prosecutors said that Lemons wrote himself a $200,000 cashier’s check from the church’s bank account in December 2020.
When church officials reported the missing funds to authorities, Oxnard police investigated and discovered there were financial discrepancies with Lemons.
Lemons falsely claimed he had donated the church’s money to charity.
Police instead learned that Lemons used the stolen funds for personal expenses, such as dental work, airline tickets, a new cell phone, a vehicle, and property in Tennessee. He made all these purchases between January and April 2021.
At the time of his sentencing, the district attorney’s office said Lemons resided in Atoka, Tennessee, but formerly lived in Camarillo, California.
Lemons will now reside behind state prison bars. Additionally, the court ordered Lemons to pay $200,000 in restitution to the church.
“Mr. Lemons made a terrible decision but has accepted responsibility for his significant theft,” Wise noted.
New Progressive’s Pastor Taylor passed away in August 2021 at the age of 87, according to his obituary. The obituary did not specify if COVID-19 was involved with his death.
The church’s Facebook page called Taylor the “visionary and organizer” of the ministry. In Facebook comentarios, friends and family called Taylor a “longtime community staple” and a “great man of God.”
El Informe Roys (TRR) reached out to New Progressive Christian Baptist Church for further comment but did not hear back prior to publication.
Liz Lykins is a correspondent covering religion news for The Roys Report, WORLD Magazine, and other publications.
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