Minister, wife sentenced
The longtime pastor of Second Baptist Church and his wife were sentenced Wednesday in what a federal prosecutor called "the final chapter in a really sad story of missed opportunities."
After accepting a plea agreement, the Rev. Willie Davis learned that he must spend five years on probation for stealing federal grant money and then lying about the crime. His wife, Emma, who had a prior felony conviction, received a two-year prison term for her role in the case.
Willie Davis faced U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson in the packed courtroom and described his experience with the legal system as "almost kind of like a nightmare."
"I don’t know how I got here, but if I had to do it all over again, I would not be here today," said the minister, who led the Las Vegas church for nearly three decades before its membership removed him in February. The church, at 500 W. Madison Ave., has about 3,500 members.
Willie Davis and his wife both asked for the court’s mercy, but in the end, Dawson followed the joint recommendations of the lawyers involved in the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Marsh said he agreed to suggest probation for the minister because of his advanced age, poor health, lack of criminal history and record in the community.
Dawson ordered Willie Davis to pay a $5,000 fine and $2,900 in restitution. The judge ordered Emma Davis to pay a $5,000 fine and about $11,600 in restitution.
"I’d just like to say that this is probably the most difficult day of my life, and I regrettably made some mistakes," Emma Davis told the judge.
Dawson said he understood that grant requirements can be difficult to follow.
"Sometimes the devil is in the details, and apparently that is what has happened here," the judge said.
About 60 people filled the courtroom’s benches for the sentencing hearing. Some stood and shook hands with the defendants or offered hugs after the proceedings, while others kept their distance. Two Second Baptist Church members who attended said Willie Davis should go to prison.
Claudia Lovett said the defendant needs to spend at least a year behind bars to learn from his crimes and to think about those he has hurt.
"He has yet to apologize to Second Baptist Church for what he’s done," she said. "He’s yet to apologize to the congregation, and he should have."
Lovett said the congregation would have forgiven him.
Another church member, Shirley Gee, said she has forgiven Willie Davis. Nevertheless, she said she thinks he should go to prison.
"I’m just bewildered as to how you can be so arrogant and brutal from the pulpit and now throw yourself on the mercy of the court," she said.
Gee, who recently resigned from her position as a church trustee, said Willie Davis has lashed out at those who have disagreed with him. She wondered aloud how he now could take on the leadership of a new church.
Although defense lawyer Stanley Hunterton described Willie Davis in court as a "70-year-old jobless convicted felon," Gee said Second Baptist Church members recently have received e-mails and fliers advertising the minister’s new church, Gethsemani Missionary Baptist Church at 1490 E. University Ave., near Maryland Parkway.
Hunterton said his client has not discussed the new church with him, and Willie Davis did not mention the new church during a brief interview after his sentencing hearing.
When asked about his plans for the future, the minister said only, "I’m going to take it one day at a time."
He made the following statement about his criminal case: "Out of 70 years of living, I’ve never been gerrymandered into trickery, lying, plotting against. Because of all the charges they have, we were tricked into pleading guilty to a lot of stuff that was not true."
When asked to elaborate, the defendant said, "I guess before I mess myself up, I better stop right there."
One man who attended the sentencing hearing, and who described himself as a friend of the Davises, said church members who now call the minister a thief should remember that he is "a 70-year-old man who buried their dead, who blessed their babies, who married them, who sat at their bedside, who counseled them, who got them out of jail."
"He’s still the same man," said the couple’s friend, who would not give his name.
Willie and Emma Davis, who have been married for nine years, were indicted in September 2005 on federal fraud charges after authorities accused them of enriching themselves with about $330,000 from a grant they obtained under false pretenses. Also indicted was the Rev. McTheron Jones, an assistant pastor at Second Baptist Church.
A power outage at the federal courthouse Wednesday afternoon delayed Jones’ sentencing hearing, which was rescheduled for today.
According to the indictment, the defendants obtained a Justice Department grant in 2002, through a nonprofit agency called Alliance Collegiums Association of Nevada, to operate halfway houses for prison inmates in Southern Nevada.
Marsh said people quit their jobs and relocated to accept new positions with the nonprofit agency, but "no halfway house was ever opened, no former inmate was ever served."
The prosecutor said most of the grant money went to payroll, but Willie Davis also admitted receiving a $2,900 check for consulting fees that were not allowed under the terms of the grant. Marsh said Emma Davis, who became executive director of the organization, received pay for work she did not do and was given pay raises that were not allowed or approved under the terms of the grant.
Willie Davis pleaded guilty in February to one count of theft of government property and one count of making false statements to a government agency. Emma Davis pleaded guilty to the theft count as well as one count of obstruction of justice and one count of misuse of a Social Security number. Jones pleaded guilty to theft and obstruction.
Emma Davis, 53, has a 1993 conviction from Detroit for using a false Social Security number in connection with a bankruptcy filing. She received probation in that case.
Dawson gave Emma Davis until Aug. 31 to surrender to prison in the new case.
