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Former pastor enters plea on embezzlement charges
Photo from WSPD
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Published: February 5, 2009
Updated: 02/05/2009 04:14 pm
A former Winston-Salem pastor pleaded this afternoon to charges that he embezzled nearly $292,000 during his 20-year tenure at First Baptist Church on Highland Avenue.
Wendell Johnson entered an Alford plea in Forsyth Superior Court. An Alford plea allows a defendant to plead guilty in his own best interest, but not acknowledge any wrongdoing.
He's charged with nine counts of embezzlement, accused of taking $291,806.80 since 1989. Johnson became pastor of the church, which is on Highland Avenue, in 1985.
Judge William Z Wood Jr. sentenced Johnson to nine back-to-back sentences of six to eight months, suspended for five years of probation.
"He abused his sacred calling, without a doubt," Wood said of Johnson.
Johnson did not speak at the hearing That disappointed congregation members, who had asked for probation instead of prison time for Johnson.
"I think anybody would like to hear those two words 'I'm sorry,'" said Danny Freeeman, the church member who led the audit that uncovered many of the financial irregularities.
Johnson resigned from the church in November 2005, amid a police investigation of embezzlement. He also resigned from his position as a volunteer chaplain at the police department.
A letter to members of First Baptist Church in October 2005 detailed some of the financial irregularities that led the church to call police.
Nathaniel "Chip" Rumph II, the chairman at the time of the church's board of trustees, wrote that questionable expenses from 2004 to 2005 included:
--65 checks written to Johnson for a total of $104,758 - payments that were on top of his salary.
--Payments totaling $1,400 to Sears and $17,500 to Texaco/Shell.
--$1,410 in payments to a heating and air-conditioning company in Richmond, and $3,178 paid on a Citibank credit card. Both accounts were in the name of a woman who lives in Richmond.
Rumph wrote that the church had had a complete breakdown in its financial checks.
"Autonomy without accountability is a recipe for corruption, which is exactly what we have found," he wrote.
A larger financial audit and later police investigation led to the charges that Johnson embezzled
Johnson tried to withdraw his resignation in December 2005, only to be arrested and charged with trespassing when he tried to preach at Sunday services.
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