Church treasurer charged with stealing more than $400K from congregation
A longtime church treasurer in South Carolina is accused of stealing more than $400,000 from her congregation over nearly seven years, according to state investigators.
Louise Latrell Seward, 54, of Lee County, was charged Monday with breach of trust with fraudulent intent involving property valued at $10,000 or more, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
Authorities allege that while serving as treasurer of Mechanicsville United Methodist Church in Lee County, Seward used church funds to make hundreds of unauthorized personal purchases totaling $402,655.45.
According to the arrest warrant, the alleged thefts occurred between Jan. 1, 2018, and Aug. 29, 2025.
“During an interview with law enforcement, the defendant admitted to making the unauthorized personal purchases between January 2018 and August 2025,” the warrant continued. “Probable cause was obtained through statements from the defendant and a forensic audit of the church’s financial records. This being in violation of the South Carolina Code of Laws.”
According to a 2017 study by Lifeway Research, nearly one out of 10 surveyed Protestant pastors said their church had witnessed someone embezzle funds.
The study also found that churches with 250 or more members were slightly more likely to report witnessing embezzlement than smaller congregations.
"Churches run on trust — but they also know people are imperfect and can be tempted," said Lifeway Executive Director Scott McConnell at the time. "That's why safeguarding a church's finances is an important part of ministry."
In 2023, Patricia Ann Radich of Rochester, Minnesota, was sentenced to 89 days at the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center and required to pay $251,167.47 in restitution to Trinity Lutheran Church after being found guilty of stealing approximately $183,000 from the church to feed a gambling addiction.
Trinity Lutheran Church of Rochester released a statement in 2021 saying that filing charges against Radich "was a difficult, but necessary, step as the congregation seeks to address the impact caused by the significant embezzlement of funds."
"Though the situation is very troubling, God has carried Trinity Lutheran Church through various adversities during its 153 years of ministry, and we are united in our belief that He will remain faithful and show us the way through our current challenges," the church stated at the time.
Former pastor convicted of domestic violence assault on ex-girlfriend
Ray Montgomery, a civil rights advocate and former senior pastor of Second Baptist Church of Martinez in California, has been found guilty of misdemeanor domestic violence following an attack on a former girlfriend at his home two years ago.
Montgomery, 59, who is also the former executive director of the social justice nonprofit People Acting in Community Together, was found guilty by a jury last Thursday following a trial, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
He was found guilty despite filing a defamation lawsuit against the now 44-year-old woman, identified by KTVU as Darcie Green, executive director of health nonprofit Latinas Contra Cancer. She told police he strangled her in his home in 2024.
“We believe domestic violence victims,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Lawsuits and lying will never stop us from seeking justice for those who are hurt by their partners.”
In statements to authorities, Green claimed that while she was visiting Montgomery on the night of June 6, 2024, he picked her up and dragged her down a hallway at his home. When she told him to stop, he refused and began pressing her neck between his forearm and bicep until she felt like she would pass out.
When he eventually released her, the Green said she collapsed on the floor as Montgomery stood over her. She later locked herself in a bathroom and called a friend for help. The following day, Green went to Stanford Hospital.
Nearly five months later, on Nov. 26, 2024, she reported the assault to the San Jose Police Department.
Montgomery responded by suing the victim for defamation in 2025, alleging that her allegations forced him to resign from his job at PACT in December 2024.
In the defamation lawsuit cited by KTVU, Montgomery said he had a years-long relationship with Green until mid-2024. He alleged that a verbal argument with Green at his home forced him to ask her to leave. He said a witness can testify that Green repeatedly ignored requests to leave his home.
She would rather lock herself in the bathroom? Weird, eh?
Father Michael Pfleger Removed From Saint Sabina Again After New Sex Abuse Accusation
AUBURN GRESHAM — Father Michael Pfleger has been removed from his leadership
position at Saint Sabina Parish as the Archdiocese of Chicago investigates another
accusation of sexual assault against the outspoken priest.
Former Hannibal youth pastor arrested in Louisiana on child sex abuse charges dating to 1990s
Woman sues Archdiocese of Milwaukee, St. Matthias over former teacher's child sex abuse
A Wisconsin woman is suing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and St. Matthias Catholic Parish and School, alleging the institutions did not investigate reports a fourth-grade teacher was sexually abusing students and allowed him to keep tutoring other children even after parents raised concerns.
That former teacher, Kevin Buelow, was sentenced in 2024 in two separate trials to more than 26 years in prison for sexually assaulting five girls at both St. Matthias, in Milwaukee, and Holy Apostles Catholic Parish and School, in New Berlin. The assaults at St. Matthias occurred between 2010 and 2012, and at Holy Apostles between 2013 and 2018.
The woman who filed the lawsuit is unnamed in the complaint. She was 11 years old at the time of the abuse, the complaint said, and as a teenager became the first person to come forward and report Buelow's abuse to police.
The case "represents a larger pattern of putting warning signs aside and not focusing on protecting children when that should be the top priority," said attorney Jacob Goodman, from the Michigan-based Fierberg National Law Group, which brought the lawsuit along with the Milwaukee-based Pitman, Kalkhoff, Sicula & Dentice firm.
The case was filed June 30 in Milwaukee County.
A spokesperson for the archdiocese said it would not comment on a pending legal case.
More: Former Northwoods priest convicted of abuse to go before parole board
More: Madison priest stripped of clerical role after child sex crime charges
The lawsuit alleges:
After a child's mother first reported Buelow had inappropriately touched the girl during a one-on-one tutoring session, Susan Booth, who was then the St. Matthias school principal, said she would speak with Buelow. Buelow denied what had happened.
Booth was "shirking her duty as a mandatory reporter," the complaint said, and did not share the report with anyone at the parish or school.
Even after that first report, the lawsuit said, Booth, the school and the archdiocese allowed Buelow to tutor another child – the plaintiff in the suit – one-on-one throughout the summer of 2013, and they never told her parents about the first child's report.
The lawsuit said the then-parish director, Jeff Van Dalen, also caught Buelow on a couch with the plaintiff with the door partially closed, and he became suspicious. Van Dalen brought the concern to Booth, but Booth told the director to speak with Buelow himself, the suit said.
"No investigation or other meaningful action followed," the complaint said.
The tutoring sessions took place in St. Matthias's "bridal ready room." The lawsuit said the school and archdiocese had the ability to control their employee, Buelow, and "knew or should have known" he was meeting with children in secluded areas of the school without adequate supervision, but "nonetheless permitted this practice to continue."
Booth and school officials then did not tell families at St. Matthias why Buelow was leaving. They also did not tell Holy Apostles administrators, who then hired Buelow. He was later convicted of abusing three girls at Holy Apostles.
"Holy Apostles received no warning or other notice from St. Matthias or from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee despite both schools being under its jurisdiction about the allegations leveled against Buelow preceding his transfer," the complaint said.
Booth and other school officials "deliberately chose" not to investigate complaints against Buelow, not to report Buelow to law enforcement as mandated reporters, and not to restrict his unsupervised access to children, the suit said.
The lawsuit alleges the officials failed to enforce the archdiocese's own policies around preventing child sexual abuse, which are called the "Safeguarding All God's Children" policies.
As a result of the abuse, the plaintiff suffered "severe emotional distress, including, but not limited to, intense fear, shame, anxiety, depression, intrusive memories, sleep disturbance, and other serious psychological injuries that have profoundly interfered with her daily life and functioning," the complaint said.
The plaintiff received several mental health diagnoses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and depression and anxiety disorders. She struggled emotionally in college and had to drop out of school, the complaint said.
The plaintiff's "life has become a shell of what she worked so hard to achieve," the complaint said.
The lawsuit asks for compensation at an amount to be determined at trial.
Trial for Acadia Parish priest accused of child sex abuse rescheduled after judge recuses himself
CROWLEY, La. (KLFY) — A Catholic priest in Acadia Parish charged with child sex abuse will have his trial overseen by a new judge, necessitating a rescheduling of proceedings.
Disrtict Court Judge David Smith recently agreed to recuse himself from the case, in which the Rev. Korey Lavergne faces three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile.
Lavergne was arrested Jan. 17, and pleaded not guilty to all charges March 20.
The recusal of Smith came during a pre-trial hearing, following a joint motion presented by both the State and the defense. The case will now be transferred to Judge Scott Privat.
According to a court clerk, the next step for the case is a joint reset proceeding. The clerk confirmed that Privat will officially take over the case during the status proceeding.
The pre-trial hearing for Lavergne has yet to be rescheduled.
