WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2005

D.A. BROWN: LONG ISLAND COUPLE CHARGED WITH INCOME TAX EVASION IN CONNECTION WITH ALLEGED THEFT OF $500,000 FROM QUEENS CHURCH

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Baldwin, Long Island, couple have been charged with evading New York State income tax stemming from their alleged roles in embezzling nearly $500,000 from the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Jamaica, Queens.

District Attorney Brown said, “Already charged with allegedly using their positions of trust to betray a church and its congregants by diverting church funds for various lifestyle expenses – including car and mortgage payments, charge cards, summer school and even a vacation in Hawaii – the defendants are now additionally accused of failing to pay state income taxes. They will be vigorously prosecuted.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendants as Anna Lenore Kilpatrick, a former administrative assistant at the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, and Barry Kilpatrick, her husband, a sheet-metal mechanic, both 48, both of 3457 Courtney Place in Baldwin, New York.

The Kilpatricks are charged in a 21-count indictment with thirteen counts of Violation of Tax Law 1804 (a)(b)[False Returns: Personal Income and Earning Taxes], seven counts of Violation of Tax Law 1801(a) [Failure to File a Return or Report: Supplying False Information on Return] and one count of Violation of Tax Law 1803(a) [Repeated Failure to File a Return or Report]. Their company, Lenore’s Catering Services, Inc., of 50 Powell Street in Roosevelt, NY, has been charged with one count of Repeated Failure to File a Return or Report. If convicted, the Kilpatricks each face up to 15 years in prison and their company faces a fine of up to $10,000.

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 church’s former administrative assistant. The church conducted an audit and, after uncovering irregularities in the church’s accounts, made a complaint to the District Attorney’s Economic Crimes Bureau.

In September 2004, according to District Attorney Brown, Morning Star’s former pastor, Reverend Charles Betts, 68, was charged with acting in concert with the Kilpatricks to embezzle more than $494,000 from the church during an eight-year period between 1996 and 2003 which the three defendants allegedly used to maintain comfortable lifestyles – including a trip by the Kilpatricks to Hawaii, mortgage payments on their home, a $2,900 payment for a summer school attended by their children.

Reverend Betts, who presently resides at 1407 Gulf Stream Circle in Brandon, Florida, pleaded guilty on July 20, 2005, to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree. He was sentenced in September 2005 to five years’ probation and ordered to pay full restitution in the amount of $31,806.21 to the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church. The Kilpatricks are currently awaiting trial on charges of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree stemming from that case. Their next court date is January 3, 2006 in Queens County Supreme Court.

According to the indictment filed in today’s case, the Kilpatricks filed fraudulent New York State Resident Income Tax Returns for the tax years 1997 - 2002 by failing to report the funds diverted from the Morning Star Church as earnings, thereby attempting to evade paying taxes on the money and understating the tax liability they owed to the state.

The indictment also alleges that between, January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2004, the Kilpatricks and Lenore’s Catering Service, Inc., failed to file a corporate tax return for three consecutive years.

The Kilpatricks were taken into custody early this morning by Detectives John W. Kenna and Richard Lewis of the Queens District Attorney’s Detective Squad, which is under the supervision of Lawrence J. Festa, Chief Investigator, and Albert D. Velardi, Deputy Chief Investigator.

The Kilpatricks were arraigned this afternoon before Queens County Supreme Court Justice James P. Griffin who set bail at $100,000 for each defendant and set a return date of January 17, 2006. Anna and Barry Kilpatrick had been released on $150,000 and $50,000 bail, respectively, on their earlier case.

The investigation was conducted by 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 Attorneys Pavlides and Peress are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney Cantoni.

It should be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.