CHAMPAIGN (IL)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
April 13, 2023
By Josh Shepherd
The former pastor of an Illinois church has been sentenced to 10 months in prison, after pleading guilty to financial fraud and reportedly spending much of his ill-gotten gain on gambling.
Lekevie Johnson, 47, former pastor of Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Champaign, Illinois, pleaded guilty to multiple financial crimes at a December court hearing. The charges included federal program misapplication, student loan misapplication, and making false statements in a bankruptcy petition.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm sentenced Johnson to a 10-month prison term and ordered him to pay $59,358.90 in restitution. According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, the minister was found guilty of defrauding multiple federal agencies for nearly a decade.
According to a local news report, Johnson said in court: “I have blamed no one but myself for my self-inflicted situation.”
Johnson was senior pastor of Mount Calvary, formerly Jericho Missionary Baptist Church, since 2009. He resigned last November. According to his online bio, he was ordained in 1999 and pastored a church in Mississippi from 2001 to 2009.
For seven years, starting in 2012, Johnson ran an Illinois nonprofit group called Life Line, promoted as a program to help low-income students. The minister applied for and received a federal grant of $25,700 to benefit this charitable group. However, according to the DOJ, Johnson used the funds “for his own benefit, including by making numerous ATM cash withdrawals at various casinos.”
Judge Mihm stated: “Although Johnson suffered from a gambling addiction, his crimes were the result of his voluntary choices and hurt many people, including the disadvantaged children in the Garden Hills neighborhood who did not benefit as intended from the federal grant.”
In 2017, Johnson, who is a Marine Corps veteran, enrolled as a student at the scandal-plagued evangelical school, Liberty University. He was accepted in Liberty’s online master’s of arts in Christian ministry program and received tens of thousands in federal student loans.
However, Johnson spent over $31,000 for personal expenses and pursuits, including gambling at multiple casinos.
Most recently, Johnson’s bankruptcy fraud intersected with his church’s finances.
When Johnson and his wife, Rochelle, applied in January 2020 for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, he stated his church income as $42,900. However, federal investigators found that he received tens of thousands of additional funds from the church.
Nancy Gargula, appointed as a U.S. Trustee to enforce bankruptcy laws, commented on the case. “Making false statements, utilizing federal program monies for gambling purposes, and concealing those acts strikes at the very core of the integrity of the bankruptcy system,” she said. “Today’s sentencing sends a strong message that these actions will not be tolerated.”
The Roys Report (TRR) contacted Johnson and Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church for comment but they did not respond. He is not listed on the church’s website. However, church social posts promoting Johnson’s book remain up, and his past sermons are still posted.
Johnson was ordered to report to the Bureau of Prisons on June 6 to begin serving his sentence.