DALLAS — A Dallas pastor received a 35-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of stealing three churches in a deed fraud scheme.
Whitney Foster, the pastor of the True Foundation Non-Denominational Church, was convicted of felony theft in connection with three churches: First Christian Church of Lancaster, Canada Drive Christian Church, and Church at Nineveh in Dallas.
The jury found Foster committed felony theft of $300,000. The indictment combined the theft of the three churches into a single case.
Foster had earlier rejected a plea offer for a lesser punishment. He testified during the four-day trial in his defense.
“Stealing real estate is just as much a theft as stealing someone’s purse or car,” prosecutor Phillip Clark told WFAA after the trial. “But it is much more complicated to unwind or fix.”
Although Foster has been convicted, Clark said the churches are still having to untangle issues connected to the deed fraud.
“The Canada Drive Christian Church congregation was completely booted out of their church building,” Clark said. “In the case with Lancaster, they are still trying to fix all the problems he created. Nineveh and Canada are still in his or his church’s name.”
Besides the three churches, the Dallas County jury heard evidence during the punishment phase of the trial that seven other properties – mostly church buildings or lots owned by churches - had similar “hallmarks” of deed fraud.
Prosecutors played jurors a May 2021 story detailing the deed-fraud theft of First Christian Church of Lancaster.
The WFAA story revealed records filed in March 2019 with the Dallas County Clerk showed that an individual claiming to be the church chairman deeded the church over to Foster for $10.
In a telephone interview in the WFAA story, Foster told WFAA that he believed the building was vacant and said he had been cutting the grass.
He told WFAA investigative reporter Tanya Eiserer that he put a $10 check in the mail and believed he was within his rights to acquire ownership of the property.
“You can acquire a property for $10 with nonprofits,” he said. “The church is community property. …. It wasn’t Whitney buying it. Our church was getting it. I was fixing to open up a church there.”
Rev. Melissa Bitting provided WFAA with a copy of the $10 check. The check was dated March 18, 2019.
The memo line on the check says it’s for a “donation.”
“I cannot imagine the audacity of this gentleman to come and worship with us like he did one Sunday morning before he stole the property,” Bitting said.
The church congregation is more than 170 years old and one of the oldest in North Texas. A historical marker in front of the church goes further: It says the church is “one of the oldest Christian congregations in continuous service in the state.”
WFAA's 2022 "Dirty Deeds" special detailed how easy it is for thieves to file documents with the county clerk and take properties they do not own.