Louisiana Pastor Pleads Guilty to Stealing Nearly $900,000 From Church and School

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/us/louisiana-pastor-church-fraud.html

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A renowned Baptist minister in Louisiana pleaded guilty this week to stealing nearly $900,000 from his church, its rental properties and a charter school, using schemes that personally enriched him as he defrauded his parishioners of their donations and deceived tenants and educators, the Justice Department said.

Federal prosecutors said that the minister, the Rev. Charles Southall III, who wields far-reaching influence as the head pastor of the First Emanuel Baptist churches in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where elected officials and police chiefs have been known to worship, pleaded guilty to a money-laundering charge on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

“In total,” the Justice Department said in a news release, “Southall obtained approximately $889,565.86 through his fraudulent schemes.”

Mr. Southall, 64, who has been the executive pastor at First Emanuel Baptist for more than three decades, agreed to repay $687,000 to First Emanuel, $85,000 to Spirit of Excellence, the charter school, and about $110,000 to others who were victimized, the Justice Department said. He will face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced by Judge Jay Zainey on Jan. 17.

Clarence Roby Jr., a lawyer who represents Mr. Southall, said in a brief phone interview on Thursday that Mr. Southall’s guilty plea “speaks for itself.”

When asked why his client had stolen from the church and its parishioners, Mr. Roby said, “Why do people choose to do whatever they do when they’ve engaged in conduct that they’ve pled guilty to?”

He added that he did not know if Mr. Southall would still serve as a pastor at First Emanuel Baptist and declined to answer follow-up questions.

Mr. Southall could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday night. First Emanuel Baptist did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

The guilty plea and corresponding charging documents highlighted how connected Mr. Southall was with the predominantly Black community he had long preached to, serving as pastor, educational leader and, essentially, landlord to hundreds in a region known for its close-knit nature. He also has ties to prominent figures in the state; on his church’s website, a video link shows Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana praising the pastor.

But former employees of the school he oversaw said in interviews that he was a vindictive man who wields his clout for economic gain, and who uses his faith as a shield when questioned about his suspicious actions. When confronted, the former employees say, he would often clap back: Would a man of faith do such a thing?

Theada Thompson, a former employee of Edgar P. Harney Elementary School, which was under the purview of Mr. Southall in 2018 when he was the president of the board of directors overseeing the charter school, said in a phone interview on Thursday night that Mr. Southall was “the economic hit man of the African American community.”

Ashonta Wyatt, a former principal of Harney Elementary, said that he had been “exalted in New Orleans as this pillar, a man of God — an untouchable being.”

Ms. Wyatt, who raised concerns about Mr. Southall’s financial management of the school before she was fired in November 2018, said it was her questioning of his financial stewardship that led to her firing.

A range of people were affected by Mr. Southall’s schemes from about 2013 to 2020, prosecutors say: He diverted one parishioner’s $10,000 tithe in 2019 to his own use; he solicited multiple donations from another parishioner, promising that it would be used to improve the New Orleans church building, and pocketed more than $106,000 from that parishioner’s donations.

Mr. Southall also profited from rental properties owned by the church, diverting about $150,000 in rental payments to his personal accounts and also placing more than a half-million dollars from sold properties in his accounts, the Justice Department said.

In 2013, Mr. Southall, a board member of the Spirit of Excellence Academy, secured funding to create a new charter school in Baton Rouge, but the school never opened, prosecutors say. Still, he had hired a person, who is not named in court records, and paid them about $220,600, all of which was placed in an account that Mr. Southall and the individual controlled, the Justice Department said. Louisiana law prohibits board members from receiving compensation for providing services, unless it is for reimbursement of actual expenses, the Justice Department said.

Prosecutors said that Mr. Southall used $95,000 of the stolen money to purchase one vehicle and about $10,700 to make a down payment for another.

Mr. Southall’s suspicious dealings also extended to Harney Elementary, the former employees said. The school, which had about 260 students before closing in 2019 because of financial mismanagement and compliance issues, would pay employees in an unconventional manner, said Ms. Wyatt, the former principal.

The school’s money was in an account controlled by Mr. Southall, she said, and every pay period on Fridays, she would have to email him and ask for about $70,000 to make payroll. He would then transfer the money to the school’s account, and Ms. Wyatt said she would sign checks for each employee.

“That was not the way it was supposed to happen,” she said.

Ms. Thompson, who used to attend Mr. Southall’s sermons at church, said it was “disheartening” to learn about the details of the pastor’s case.

“What about the children, our most highly prized legacy,” she said, “and our community?”