A local minister has been arrested and charged with several felonies and misdemeanors for allegedly forging checks and depositing the money into his own account.
The Rev. McKinley Williams, the pastor at First Baptist Church in Lexington, was arrested on Aug. 26 by the Lexington Police Department on 10 felony charges – five counts of forging bank notes and five counts of passing forged bank notes as authentic. He was also charged with five misdemeanor counts of petit larceny.
Williams has been released on a $10,000 bond and has a court hearing regarding his attorney arrangements in Lexington General District Court on Sept. 18.
The investigation began in July following a complaint made by members of First Baptist Church. According to affidavits for search warrants filed for the Baptist Church, Williams’ Massie Street residence and his vehicle, church members were made aware of nonpayments for utilities after they received notice that those services would be cut off.
In searching for an explanation, they found several checks that had originally been written to various utilities upon which the name of the utility had allegedly been whited-out and replaced with McKinley’s name.
Between May 1 and May 11 of this year, they were then allegedly deposited into McKinley’s account at the ATM at Wells Fargo. According to the arrest warrants filed in district court, the checks varied in amounts, most less than $300 and the largest being for $662.
Several electronic devices were seized during the searches of Williams’ residence and the church, as were several bank records.
Lexington Police Chief Justin Doll told The News-Gazette on Monday that the investigation is ongoing and additional charges may be filed in connection with this case.
Williams has been the pastor at First Baptist Church since April 2018.
