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Massachusetts Adventist Pastor Arrested and Accused of Defrauding Seniors
Submitted: Apr 6, 2012
By AT News Team
Luther Raposo, an ordained minister in the Southern New England Conference assigned to pastor the Taunton and Foxboro churches in the suburbs of Boston, was arrested Tuesday and arraigned Thursday on charges of attempted larceny, identity fraud and document fraud. Detective Thomas Kirrane testified that bank officials at Foxboro Federal Savings had tipped the police to a scam in which at least four people in their 70s and 80s from Michigan, New Mexico and Arkansas gave Raposo their social security numbers and he made online arrangements with the Social Security Administration to have their checks deposited in an account he opened. The senior citizens were told by Raposo that they had won a lottery, according to reports in The Foxboro Reporter and The Sun Chronicle.
Pastor Raposo claims that he is also a victim in the scam and sent $3,500 to a man in Florida, according to the Boston Herald. It is unclear the extent to which the police believe this to be true. “It’s certainly a conspiracy by two or more people,” Kirrane is quoted as stating in The Foxboro Reporter, but the Boston Herald states the “cops don’t buy it” and quotes the detective saying Raposo’s claim is “not credible. He wants you to think he’s cooperating, but he’s really not. He thinks he’s a little smarter than everyone else.”
Evidently Raposo did not use contacts he made through the denomination in the scam. He “allegedly telephoned the victims randomly,” stated the copyrighted story in The Sun Chronicle. He is alleged to have told the victims that they had won a lottery in order to get them to give him information that he could use to divert their Social Security checks.
The police presented evidence that indicates that Raposo has had severe financial difficulties. “He allegedly defaulted on $60,000 in loans he obtained from six different banks in 2010,” The Sun Chronicle reported from police testimony in court. “He has filed for bankruptcy. Raposo told police he sent the money to England to process an estate he inherited.”
Raposo was released on bail and is due back in court on May 1. He is 51 and married, with three children. One child is in college, according to news reports.
Frank Tochterman, president of the Southern New England Conference, told the Boston Herald yesterday that Pastor Raposo has been placed on indefinite paid leave until the charges are dealt with. The conference president also told the newspaper about an “unrelated unusual behavior” and a medical condition. “He’s unable to fulfill his pastoral responsibilities,” the president is quoted. “The family indicates that his medical condition has contributed to his behavior and what he’s being accused of.” Church administrators are routinely advised by legal counsel to be careful not to make direct accusations in situations such as this and not to violate the privacy of the employee involved. “Of course this is embarrassing to the churches in the area, and it’s embarrassing to the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a whole.”
There is no indication that Raposo took money from church members or even approached them for funds, although he evidently has had some fund raising responsibilities in his role as a pastor. The home page of the Foxboro Seventh-day Adventist Church web site says, “We are currently launching another Stewardship Campaign! We are trying to pay the loan off in three years instead of twenty to save as much money as possible. … In total we have commitments of $282,000. This is enough to pay the loan off and start the new Sabbath School rooms we need.”
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Do be careful in what you read. There have been some inaccuracies in the news reports, and because most of the news articles out there are directly quoting the inaccurate stories, you have widespread faulty information.
First of all, the last paragraph of the article above is false. Raposo has not had anything to do with fundraising at the church since he started there in fall of 2010. The website quoted is an old website that has very dated information about a previous building campaign that ended in 2008.
While Christians are certainly not immune to the snare of the devil, we onlookers should be careful not to cast stones, however tiny of a pebble they may seem, before the full truth comes out. There is a lot that reports have not included. Pray for the reporters, investigators, police, etc in their dealings with this situation, and pray that truth is made clear. Also pray for the hurting families involved--the elderly victims as well as the Raposo family.
In any case there is definitely and should be a higher standard of conduct for a man of the cloth. It does not mean he is above temptation, it does mean he must be especially circumspect in any of his actions.
And, as has been at least implied, we should not throw him under the bus; let justice be meted out after proper investigation.
Nothing has changed, it seems and as long as the church has degrees of sin it will continue.
The SDA Church tenaciously clings to its independence from the civil courts when it comes to ministerial personnel matters. Why in the world would it defer to the criminal courts in matters of moral turpitude, unless it simply wants to pass the buck for political expediency? There may be compelling reasons to allow the pastor to draw his salary pending resolution of the criminal proceedings. I just can't imagine what they might be, and I think the Conference has an obligation to let tithepayers know those reasons.
Were the pastor accused of having had an affair with the church organist (not a crime), do you think the conference would place him on paid leave until the charges were dealt with? The contrast between the summary manner in which the La Sierra 4 were asked to resign, in a case involving neither moral turpitude nor criminal conduct, and the manner in which this criminal matter, clearly involving moral turpitude, is being handled is startling.
No one is suggesting throwing the pastor under the bus or letting his family starve. But behavior has consequences. Holding people accountable for breaches of trust is not inconsistent with forgiveness. It is simply a matter of whether the Conference should be responsible stewards of its resources. Whether or not this pastor is found guilty of the criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt should have no bearing on the Conference's investigation and action.
Those who support keeping the pastor on indefinite paid leave "until the charges are dealt with" need to explain why the Conference, as good stewards, should not immediately conduct its own investigation, and act on the results of that investigation as appropriate. Right now, indefinite paid leave until charges are dealt with makes it look like the Conference is just ducking an issue that needs to be resolved, and like it is being a poor steward of tithe resources.