DALLAS (TX)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
June 13, 2024
By Liz Lykins
A Texas pastor has been convicted of stealing three church properties worth more than $800,000 and sentenced to 35 years in prison, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday in a statement.
Whitney Foster, 56, pastor at True Foundation Non-Denominational Church in Dallas, created fraudulent deeds for the churches and then took control of the properties, the District Attorney’s Office statement said. Foster listed fake pastors or claimed to be other church officials on his illegal paperwork.
Foster was found guilty of theft of property greater than $300,000 by a jury, though the combined amount of the properties was $800,0000, the office said. Along with his sentence, Foster received a fine of $8,000, according to records of the jury’s results.
Foster stole three north Texas churches including First Christian Church in Lancaster, Canada Drive Christian Church, and Church at Nineveh in Dallas, the District Attorney’s Office said.
Two of the three churches are still listed in Foster’s name, with Foster’s congregation’s actively gathering at Canada Drive, the office noted. The third property is tangled up in legal complications caused by Foster’s theft.
“The Canada Drive Christian Church congregation was completely booted out of their church building,” Lead Prosecutor Phillip Clark told WFAA after Foster’s trial in May. “In the case with Lancaster, they are still trying to fix all the problems he created.”
Clark told Fox 4 News that Foster intended to grow his congregation by taking these properties.
Before the thefts, the District Attorney’s Office said Foster’s small congregation at True Foundation in Dallas did not have a physical place to gather.
“He was just taking it upon himself to take property from people. He completely upended and disrupted other congregations,” Clark said.
The Roys Report reached out to True Foundation for comment but did not hear back prior to publication.
The District Attorney’s Office added that they have evidence Foster illegally took control of as many as seven additional properties.
“Deed fraud cases are not simply disputes; they are lies and fraud – they are theft – and they are deeply damaging,” Clark said in Monday’s statement. “I’m so grateful that the jury saw the truth in this case and held the defendant to account.”
He added, “Property ownership is a bedrock of our society – it provides security, a home, a place to love and welcome each other.”
Foster has previously been convicted of identity theft in 2011 and arson in 1995, according to court records.
Foster Illegally Bought Lancaster Church for $10
First Christian Church of Lancaster was the first property to sound the alarm on Foster’s crime, according to court records.
The pastor took control of the building in 2019 when someone named “Aaron Finley” claimed to be the chairman of the Lancaster church and sold the building to a Foster for $10. There was no one on the church’s board named Aaron Finley, according to court records.
Foster paid the $10 with a check that he put in an offering plate at the church, First Christian Church pastor Melissa Bitting told WFAA. The memo line on the check said it was for a “donation,” she added.
“I cannot imagine the audacity of this gentleman to come and worship with us like he did one Sunday morning before he stole the property,” Bitting said.
Foster told WFAA that he believed the building was vacant and that he was within his rights to acquire ownership of the property.
“You can acquire a property for $10 with nonprofits,” Foster told the news publication. “The church is community property. . . . It wasn’t Whitney buying it. Our church was getting it. I was fixing to open up a church there.”
First Christian Church is more than 170 years old and one of the oldest congregations in North Texas, according to WFFA.
“Stealing real estate is an incredibly serious and damaging crime,” John Creuzot, Dallas County criminal district attorney, said in Monday’s statement. “It’s worse than the theft of someone’s vehicle or other possessions. When someone steals property, we must hold them accountable because they are hurting people.”
Foster has filed notice that he intends to appeal his conviction, according to court records.