An Arkansas preacher’s crimes are creating waves in both the Christian and legal communities over a guilty plea of charges accusing him of stealing over half a million dollars from church coffers and only receiving probation, community services, and a requirement to pay back a fraction of the total stolen money.
Former pastor at Faith Assembly of God Church, now called Harrison Faith Church, Brian Keith Herring, was accused of stealing purchases made with church credit cards amounting to nearly $525,000 and that church bank records showed over $333,000 missing from their account. What’s more, initially other members and representatives of the church were unable to gain access to both the credit card and bank accounts, suggesting Herring intentionally removed them to hide his activities when they had previous access.
In addition to the charge of theft, he also faced charges of forgery and tampering with physical evidence, after Herring returned factory-reset phones, a tablet, and a laptop. It is assumed his financial crimes were enabled with these devices and that the erasure of their data was meant to conceal his tracks. Still, despite the disappearance of the vast sum of money and his obfuscation of evidence, he will never serve time.
Indeed, in perhaps an even wilder twist to this story, Herring entered into the final plea agreement in early March while working, and having worked for over a year, as a staff pastor at a different church in Arkansas. Somehow, his role in the crimes, the on-going investigation, his name in the papers, and the tight-knit nature of Christian communities in the area didn’t preclude doing the same thing as before. One can only assume, or at least hope, that he didn’t have access to any more church money at the multi-site Brand New Church, the place of employment when he pled guilty.
The sordid story began in the fall of 2021. “Records state the Boone County Sheriff’s Office received a report on Oct. 7, 2021, from a Harrison Faith Assembly of God Church representative about money missing from the church,” local news outlet KARK 4 reported on March 4th, shortly after the plea deal was reached. “One representative from the church told police that they had found over $333,594 was missing from various church accounts and they no longer had access to the church’s credit card account or the statements from the account.”
“On Oct. 13, 2021, prosecutors said Herring turned in a laptop, an iPad and two phones that belonged to the church, which they noted had been factory reset and all church account information had been deleted from them. Police said an audit revealed that $524,634.24 was taken by Herring and used in credit card purchases and other account transactions. When authorities attempted to contact Herring at his home, they said they found it was empty and listed for sale. Authorities later contacted Herring by phone,” the Arkansas news station added.
For all of this, Herring was “sentenced to 17 years of probation, 800 hours of community service and ordered to pay $100,000 of restitution to the church for his crimes,” Christian Post revealed. As more information comes out, if it does, maybe it will contextualize the seeming slap on the wrist for serious crimes.
Featured image: Boone County Sheriff’s Office