Jerome Isaac Hurley, 44, has been charged with a crime after church leaders found $350,000 missing from an insurance claim. The former pastor appeared in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court in Annapolis on charges of theft of more than $100,000. In Maryland, this is a felony with a possible prison sentence of 20 years. The trial is still ongoing.
The pastor’s attorney, Mark Lechowicz, has not commented on the proceedings. The pastor has also been charged with a misdemeanor for filing incorrect tax documents related to his theft. In that case, he pleaded not guilty but did not dispute the evidence. The investigation started when Anne Arundel County Police responded to a call at the Miracle Temple on Sept. 5, 2023.
Hurley worked at Miracle Temple from 2015 to 2022, overseeing the church’s finances. Court documents allege that Hurley took the vast majority of the insurance settlement. Police say the bank account number matches those owned by Hurley. In the court documents, there are several transactions, including transfers, shortly after the insurance settlement was paid.
The Baltimore Sun reports that officials discovered a large amount of money missing. According to church leaders, $347,000 to $350,000 had been transferred into the pastor’s personal bank account. Charging documents report that the pastor filed for insurance in 2020 after a home on the church property caught fire. The claim was successful, and the insurance company paid a large sum to the church.
The Church initially attempted to contact the pastor directly, but it was unsuccessful. The Miracle Temple board sent the pastor a certified letter stating that they had trusted him “to act in good faith” when handling church finances. The board also says they were not aware of the insurance claim or the massive payout. There is no information on what the money was spent on.
We reported on another case of church embezzlement. A pastor from North Carolina has been arrested and charged with financial crimes for misusing funds donated for hurricane relief. This is the latest entry in a criminal history dating back 20 years. The McDowell County Sheriff’s Office stated that 60-year-old Jeffrey Brian Merrow was arrested and charged with felony embezzlement and felony larceny.
The arrest came after a months-long investigation into the misuse of funds given by members of his congregation to help with hurricane relief. Officers from the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office first became aware of Merrow’s alleged crimes when congregants first reported concerns about “embezzlement, fraud, and theft” at the church in October of last year.
Hurricane Helene damaged more than $59.6 billion of property and led to the deaths of more than 100 people in North Carolina. Suspicious members of the church presented law enforcement with “numerous receipts” for “goods that were never purchased or services that were never rendered, all paid for using church funds.” The sheriff’s office added, “Church members also reported that large amounts of cash donations for hurricane relief, collected from attendees and the community, were handed to Merrow but never turned in for their intended use.” They stated that “Additionally, community-donated items for hurricane relief such as generators, chainsaws, heaters, and more–were reported stolen.”
The allegations of embezzlement are not the only financial misdeeds directed at Merrow. The disgraced pastor is also on “supervised probation for Obtaining Property by False Pretense greater than $100,000” stemming from an unrelated incident. According to the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections, Merrow has a criminal history dating back to 2006. He has also been convicted of failing to furnish buyers with a completed receipt or copy of any contract pertaining to an unspecified sale that took place in Iredell County.
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