Thursday, September 8, 2011

Word & Worship Church: Caesar took his. (Update)

Word and Worship Church is a popular church on Hanging Moss Road led by "Bishop" Jeffrey Stallworth. However, the Bishop and his flock may need to find a new home after tax liens from 2008 matured last week. The land upon which the church resides was subjected to a tax sale in 2009 by the Hinds County Tax Collector. The taxes were never redeemed by the church.

The church resides on two tracts of land. The parking lot comprises one parcel and the building resides on the other (the church parcel). The church owed Hinds County $907 for 2008 taxes for the church parcel and $4,174 for the parking lost parcel (A map is included in the documents below.). The total amount of fees and penalties added to the 2008 taxes (and excluding the 1.5% per month interest penalty paid to the purchaser at the tax sale) raise the total due to the county $4,844 (parking lot parcel) and $1,077 (church parcel). The tax sale matured on August 31, 2011. Hinds County land records state the church parcel is assigned to Investek Inc.-Greendog Consortium and the parking lot parcel is assigned to the state of Mississippi. Greendog is not registered with the Secretary of State. The SOS website states Michael McRee is the President of Investek. The holders of the tax liens only need to file some paperwork at the courthouse in order to take possession of the property.

The Reverend Stallworth is no stranger to controversy. He is currently emroiled in a lawsuit filed by a Maryland woman after he was convicted of sexual assault against her in Maryland (misdemeanor) in 2002. The conviction was expunged after he completed a one year term of probation. However, Mr. Stallworth's efforts to have his name removed from the Mississippi sex offender registry were unsuccessful after Judge Bobby DeLaughter ruled against his request. The victim sued the Bishop for damages. The case is still active in Hinds County Circuit Court. Bishop Stallworth was formerly the pastor at Anderson United Methodist Church. He is now the Bishop at Word and Worship Church. Website. The website claims "In December 2006, the church relocated to a $3.3 million facility located at I-220 and Highland Colony Parkway."

Seems like someone just picked up some nice property on the cheap. Hmmm...I wonder if this could be a site for Ed Morgan's new building for the Department of Revenue. Right by the Interstate. Plenty of land. Close to Ridgeland and Madison. Would help shore up a portion of Jackson in decline. This could work.



Update: This story gets even better. Notice the documents for a property on Delmar? Well, Mr. Stallworth purchased the property from a Mr. Moman a few years ago. Built a house on it BUT did not get a loan. Want to guess what did not take place? A title search. Want to know why you should purchase title insurance when buying a home? Here is why. There was an old tax sale from the 1990's that was never redeemed. A lender would've caught as a title search would have been required but since none was used, the "Bishop" built a free house for someone else. The someone else is Mr. Avery who supposedly is taking possession of the property. Ouch.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

KF where do you get all this stuff?

Anonymous said...

Wow. If KF made this stuff up, no one would believe him. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

JimAtTheRez

Anonymous said...

The county sends multiple notices before the period of redemption expires, there's NFW that Stallworth didn't know about the unpaid taxes. But good luck to the purchaser in trying to get a court in Hinds County to evict Stallworth from the property. The new sheriff is going to have to stand behind the propriety of the sale, and how likely do you think it is that Tyrone Lewis will get cross-ways with Stallworth's congregation?

Anonymous said...

Churches don't have to pay property taxes on property or improvements. I'm sure this tax sale will be voided.

Anonymous said...

doesn't matter...tax sales in MS are a joke. If you want to set them aside, its usually very easy. The statutory requirements are not performed by the chancery clekr 99% of the time. If the church wants the property back, it will be easy. Just have to pay the taxes and interest.

Anonymous said...

KF, by the way...
I know MS doesn't have a huge population and the income of those making over 6 figures a year was around 2% last I looked. We aren't exactly loaded down with businesses either compared to other states.And, then there's a large part of our population that doesn't have the income to pay taxes at all.
I can't figure out WHY The Tax Commission needs as much space as Morgan wants. I know only of a building in one other state and that state has five times our population, less poverty, and manages to collect taxes in a building a 1/4 of the size proposed. I'm suspecting The Tax Commission must have far more employees than needed to deal with tax issues or else they wouldn't need so much space.
Can I persuade you to look into this in more detail. This just smells and that it's " being studied" says to me, this boondoggle on the tax payer isn't going to go away.

Reed said...

How much does Stallworth make in a week? I'll wager that it's close to enough to retire the entire outstanding amount. His congregants should assess the situation their shepherd has put them in. It's a safe bet that Stallworth didn't neglect to pay himself the way he neglected to pay the tax collector.

Anonymous said...

You should add that he was reportedly put out of the United Methodist Church for his shnanigans, so he built a church across the street from the UMC church he formerly pastored.

Also, I agree that most of Jackson is in a decline, but there are still really nice neighborhoods near that church. They may be black neighborhoods, but they are still nice, desirable areas for many of the black middle class and upper middle class. Ask any black lawyer, judge, or businessman.



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