A Louisa County church secretary pleaded guilty to embezzling $670,000

Accepting the prosecutor’s statement of facts, Brenda Weddy Ragland, 64, pleaded guilty in Louisa County Circuit Court to 14 felony counts related to the burglary of the church known as House of God.

“This is a sad day for the church,” Louisa Commonwealth’s Attorney Rusty McGuire said in a statement. – They believed that Mrs. Ragland would manage the church resources, and she violated that faith by turning the church resources into her own personal piggy bank. .”

McGuire said the ongoing theft came to light last year when the church tried to get a letter from its bank before making a donation to build another church. According to him, the donor church was told that there was not enough money.

“The board immediately understood that something was wrong,” the statement said.

The church is located in a sprawling white one-story building on Columbia Road near the village of Cobham, south of Gordonsville. A phone message left at the church office was not immediately returned, and the church, where the main worship service takes place Saturday afternoon, did not appear to be occupied when the Daily Progress visited the site.

Last year, Walter Preston, who serves on the church’s board, provided seven years of financial statements to Daniel Clore of the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office, court documents show. According to Clore’s criminal complaint, the original balance of the missing money was $99,424 between 2016 and April 2023.

“The church spoke to Brenda about this and she admitted to using the church’s bank account for personal use,” Clore wrote.

Ragland was arrested in January after turning herself in to the sheriff’s office. She was released on recognizance.

On his social media pages, Ragland posts quotes from the Bible, as well as videos of sermons and hymns from church services across America. In March, she received court approval to change bond to visit her daughter, a Christian evangelist in Summerville, South Carolina, who was recovering from a medical procedure.

Although religion appears to be a major part of her life, prosecutors say Ragland stole by dipping into church accounts as well as depositing tithes from her fellow parishioners into her personal bank account using the Cash App digital wallet.

Megan Riordan, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney who helped prosecute Ragland, said the total figure of $670,000 in stolen funds came from further review of additional documents.

“That was the number we got from the statements we had,” Riordan told The Daily Progress. She declined to elaborate.

Prosecutors said they intend to make restitution part of the sentence when Ragland is sentenced on Jan. 27. Ragland faces up to 280 years in prison plus a $35,000 fine in addition to any restitution payments, Ragland remains free on bail. Her attorney, Ghislaine Storr Burks, declined to respond to a request from the Daily Progress.