Wednesday, July 20, 2005
D.A. BROWN: FORMER PASTOR PLEADS
GUILTY TO STEALING OVER $31,800
FROM MORNING STAR MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that the former pastor of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Jamaica, Queens has pled guilty to an indictment charging him with stealing along with two others -- over a nine year period -- more than $31,800 in church funds which he used to pay for personal expenses such as car expenses and vacations.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant, a former pastor, has admitted that he acted together with two others -- his former administrative assistant and her husband -- in embezzling over $31,800 from the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Jamaica, Queens while serving as its pastor and that he improperly used the money for his personal benefit. The defendant led the congregation for over three decades and his conduct represents a betrayal of the trust of his parishioners who looked to him for spiritual guidance and moral leadership.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Reverend Charles Betts, 68, the church’s former pastor, who currently resides at 1407 Gulf Stream Circle in Brandon, Florida. Reverend Betts served as pastor of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church from 1971 until his resignation in January 2003. He pled guilty earlier today to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a Class D felony, before Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron. He is expected to be sentenced on September 13, 2005 to five years probation and also be required to make full restitution to the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church. The defendant, who admitted that he took a total of $31,806.21 from the church at 114-44 Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica between January 1, 1996 and December 31, 2004 while serving as its pastor, without the permission of the church’s board of directors, and diverted the monies to his own benefit. He has been ordered to pay back the $31,806.21 and has executed a confession of judgement.
The District Attorney said that an investigation began in January 2003 when the church received in the mail a bank card in the name of Anna Lenore Kilpatrick, the pastor’s former administrative assistant, conducted an audit, uncovered irregularities in the church’s accounts and made a complaint to the District Attorney’s Economic Crimes Bureau.
District Attorney Brown said that Ms. Kilpatrick and Barry Kilpatrick, her husband, a sheet-metal mechanic, both 48, of 38 Holloway Street in Freeport, New York are awaiting trial on the charges of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree pending their next court date on November 7, 2005 in Queens Supreme Court.
The investigation was conducted by Detective Robert Reed of the New York City Police Department’s 113th Precinct Detective squad under the supervision of Lieutenant Michelle Kaiser, Squad Commander, and Forensic Accountant James Dever of the District Attorney’s Economic Crimes Bureau under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Gregory C. Pavlides, Bureau Chief, and Diane Peress, Deputy Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.
Assistant District Attorney Pavlides is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney Cantoni.