North Carolina pastor charged with embezzlement for stealing hurricane relief donations

A North Carolina pastor has been arrested and charged with embezzlement for misusing funds donated for hurricane reduction assist, including to his prison file that consists of economic crimes going again almost 20 years. 

In an announcement Friday, the McDowell County Sheriff’s Workplace introduced that 60-year-old Jeffrey Brian Merrow was arrested and charged with felony embezzlement and felony larceny. Merrow previously served as pastor of Backyard Creek Baptist Church.

The arrest follows a months-long investigation into the misuse of funds donated by members of his congregation to assist with hurricane reduction. 

Members of the McDowell County Sheriff’s Workplace first turned conscious of Merrow’s alleged actions when congregants first reported considerations about “embezzlement, fraud, and theft” on the church in October, shortly after Hurricane Helene ravaged Western elements of the state.

Involved members of the church introduced regulation enforcement with “quite a few receipts” for “items that have been by no means bought or providers that have been by no means rendered, all paid for utilizing church funds.”

“Church members additionally reported that enormous quantities of money donations for hurricane reduction, collected from attendees and the group, have been handed to Merrow however by no means turned in for his or her meant use,” the sheriff’s workplace famous. “Moreover, community-donated gadgets for hurricane reduction reminiscent of mills, chainsaws, heaters, and extra–have been reported stolen.” 

Hurricane Helene prompted $59.6 billion in harm and led to the deaths of greater than 100 individuals in North Carolina.

The costs of embezzlement aren’t the one allegations of economic misdeeds directed at Merrow. The previous pastor can be on “supervised probation for Acquiring Property by False Pretense higher than $100,000” stemming from an unrelated incident. 

In keeping with the North Carolina Division of Grownup Corrections, Merrow has a prison historical past relationship again to 2006. That yr, he was charged with failing to furnish patrons with a accomplished receipt or copy of any contract pertaining to an unspecified sale that came about in Iredell County. From October 2007 to February 2008, he was incarcerated for dishonest individuals out of cash.

The latest side of Merrow’s prison file within the state database entails larceny dedicated in Camden County in 2021. He was sentenced to 60 months of supervised probation. 

Merrow has a YouTube channel that includes movies of his sermons at Backyard Creek Baptist Church. The YouTube channel comprises a hyperlink to a weblog titled Answers4u2.com, which Merrow described as providing “solutions to questions on Jesus, God, or the Bible” in addition to “a discussion board to debate and meet others.” 

Whereas the hyperlink to the weblog is not energetic, an archived model of the webpage, because it appeared in early 2023, exhibits a number of posts written by Merrow in 2022. Matters included “God’s Strategies for Human Progress,” the battle between Russia and Ukraine, “What God Would Watch on TV,” entries in regards to the Ten Commandments, the Bible and “Methods to Pray.” 

An entry on the Blue Ridge Baptist Affiliation’s record of member church buildings identifies Richard Anderson because the interim pastor of Backyard Creek Baptist Church, which means that Merrow not serves within the place.