A former California pastor who stole $200,000 from his church while their founder was dying during the COVID-19 pandemic will now have to pay back all the money and spend two years in state prison for his crime.
A press statement from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office stated that the former pastor, 68-year-old Curtis Frank Lemons, who served as assistant pastor at New Progressive Christian Baptist Church in Oxnard, had once claimed to have given the money he stole to charity; however, investigators confirmed that he lied.
Lemons, who pleaded guilty in April to two counts of grand theft and one count of money laundering, issued himself a $200,000 cashier’s check from a bank account belonging to the church in December 2020, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said. He then splurged the money on personal expenses over the following four months, from January to April 2021. Those expenses included dental work, airline tickets, a vehicle, a new cell phone, and a new home in Tennessee where he lives.
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Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Wise said Lemons fleeced the church as its founder, the Rev. Jesse James Taylor, was dying during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taylor died on Aug. 23, 2021, according to his obituary.
“This is a sad case. Mr. Lemons stole from a vulnerable victim at a vulnerable time,” Wise said in a statement. “The patriarch of the church was near death when this happened at the onset of COVID. Mr. Lemons made a terrible decision but has accepted responsibility for his significant theft.”
Church officials did not immediately respond when contacted for comment on Monday.
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