Pastor stole $200,000 from church as its leader was ‘near death,' CA officials say
Now, Curtis Frank Lemons, 68, has been sentenced to two years in prison, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office said in a June 27 news release.
In a June 30 email to McClatchy News, Lemons' attorney, Amber Gordon, declined to comment about his sentencing.
While Lemons served as an assistant pastor with a Christian Baptist church in Oxnard, he wrote himself a cashier's check for $200,000 from the church's bank account in December 2020, prosecutors said.
At the time, 'the patriarch of the Church was near death,' and the COVID-19 pandemic had started just months earlier, Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Wise said in the release.
Over the next four months, Lemons spent the money on personal expenses, 'including dental work, airline tickets, a vehicle, a new cell phone, and property in Tennessee,' prosecutors said.
When Oxnard police detectives later spoke to Lemons about the church's missing funds, he said 'he gave the money to charity,' according to prosecutors.
This, however, was determined to be untrue, prosecutors said.
Lemons' sentence comes after he pleaded guilty to multiple counts, including grand theft and money laundering, prosecutors said.
'This is a sad case. Mr. Lemons stole from a vulnerable victim at a vulnerable time …' Wise said, adding that Lemons 'made a terrible decision but has accepted responsibility for his significant theft.'
In addition to prison, 'Lemons was ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution to the church,' prosecutors said.
Oxnard is about a 60-mile drive northwest from Los Angeles.
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