Baptist Leader Pleads Not Guilty to Charges
The Rev. Henry Lyons, the president of the National Baptist Convention USA, pleaded not guilty to racketeering and grand theft during a hearing in St. Petersburg. A trial was set for January 1999. Lyons, 55, was arrested in February and charged with two counts of grand theft and one count of racketeering. State investigators allege he vastly overstated his church’s membership to obtain more money from firms buying a mailing list of its members, extorted money from a funeral company by threatening to denounce company officials and stole funds meant to pay to rebuild churches damaged in arson attacks.
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