Church Says Sailor Secretly Took out $250,000 Mortgage, WSBT, March 28, 2008

Church Says Sailor Secretly Took out $250,000 Mortgage

WSBT
March 28, 2008

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15731187/detail.html

ATLANTA -- A report out today says former legislator Ron Sailor Junior secretly took out a $250,000 mortgage on the church where he was pastor just days before pleading guilty to federal money laundering charges.

Leaders at Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church in southwest Atlanta say they didn't know Sailor had done it and now don't know where the money is. Sailor had led the church for about a year and took over when its pastor -- the Reverend Leland Jones Senior -- was called up by the Army for service in Iraq.

The church's chairman of the board of deacons -- Jimmie Evans -- tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that church members can't believe what happened.

Ron Sailor

Sailor resigned from the Legislature after pleading guilty March 18th in federal court in Atlanta. Governor Perdue called yesterday for a May 13th election to fill the seat, which represents sections of DeKalb and Rockdale counties.

Evans says a church trustee began checking records Tuesday after it was reported that Sailor had accepted at least $80,000 from a lobbyist in a 2007 land transaction. He says the board soon learned Sailor had secretly changed church bylaws to make himself chief executive officer.

They also found that Sailor had borrowed $250,000 using the church's buildings and 2.5-acre property as collateral.

Fulton County tax assessors value the property at $369,200.

The current status of the debt is unclear.

Sailor and his attorney, Bruce Maloy, had no comment.

Sailor also had been a co-pastor with his father, Ron Sailor Senior, at Christ the King Baptist Church in Gwinnett County.