A former assistant pastor from Oxnard has been sentenced to two years in state prison after pleading guilty to stealing $200,000 from his church. Curtis Frank Lemons, 68, was convicted of three felony counts, including grand theft and money laundering, as announced by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office. The embattled ex-pastor's fall from grace climaxed with a hearing on April 4, 2025, where he admitted to his crimes.
Lemons, who served New Progressive Christian Baptist Church, misappropriated funds at a time when the church's leadership was dealing with the virus that shook the world, COVID-19. According to the statement obtained by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Wise emphasized the severity of Lemons' misconduct. "This is a sad case. Mr. Lemons stole from a vulnerable victim at a vulnerable time," Mr. Wise said. "The patriarch of the Church was near death when this happened at the onset of COVID." Lemons misused the stolen funds for various personal expenses, ranging from dental work to real estate.
Detectives from the Oxnard Police Department unraveled the deceit after the church discovered discrepancies in their finances. Among the egregious expenditures were airline tickets and a vehicle, luxuries financed by the church’s pilfered coffers. Lemons also attempted to cover his tracks with false claims of charitable giving, an assertion that investigation proved to be a patent falsehood.
Justice for the congregation came in the form of financial restitution as well as incarceration for Lemons. Along with the state prison sentence, the court ordered the former pastor to reimburse the full amount taken from the church's funds. The Ventura County DA's announcement detailed that Lemons had unlawfully issued himself a cashier's check from the church’s account back in December 2020, actions that sparked the criminal probe leading to his prosecution.
