Minister won't face U.S. charges

Journal Sentinel/1998
By Tom Vanden Brook

The U.S. attorney has decided not to prosecute a former Mequon minister and television evangelist under investigation for fraud and theft, a spokesman for the office said Tuesday.

The Rev. Chuckie Burris had been under FBI investigation since December regarding complaints about aggressive fund raising and misspent funds from former members of his Rhema Worship Center.

Burris shut down the church last fall and moved his family to Scottsdale, Ariz., where he has opened a new congregation in a storefront in nearby Glendale, Ariz. Former church members estimate that Burris raised $1.5 million in recent years from his Milwaukee-area congregation, much of that money supposedly intended to buy a church, they have said.

Charles Guadagnino, an assistant U.S. attorney, confirmed Tuesday that the investigation had concluded and that a decision had been made not to prosecute. No reason was given for the decision. A spokesman for the FBI also said the investigation had ended but declined to elaborate.

Burris could not be reached for comment.

Burris, along with his- wife, Alethea, and another woman, Phoebe Humphries, are listed as the board of directors of the non-profit corporation that runs Rhema and controls its finances, a check Tuesday of state records showed.

Several luxury automobiles are registered to Burris and his wife, including a 1998 Mercedes-Benz station wagon, a 1992 Rolls Royce, a 1996 Porsche 911 Turbo and a 1993 Volvo, according to state Department of Transportation records checked Tuesday.

The pastor, according to documents, tapped church accounts in an attempt to buy the $528,000 home that he and his wife own in Scottsdale. The house is in the gated subdivision of Scottsdale, an upscale suburb of Phoenix.

After he left Wisconsin, Burris, 41, had defaulted on the mortgage he took out on the church that he had purchased for $325,000. It was sold to a Jewish congregation this winter for $250,000.

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