Crookston Man Pleads Guilty in Church Theft
By Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.
Jan. 24–A Crookston man pleaded guilty Tuesday in state district court to forging checks to steal nearly $13,000 from his church.
Troy Vedbraaten, 24, forged the signature of his father, who is the treasurer of the Crookston Church of Christ, 321 Fifth Ave. S., on church checks he cashed worth $12,850 between October and this month, Crookston Police Chief Tim Motherway said.
Vedbraaten is the chairman of the small congregation on the southeast corner of the city.
Police were called Friday by church officials about the missing money.
“Some of the church officers found checks missing, and they looked into it and found some checks had been forged,” Motherway said.
Vedbraaten turned himself in Sunday and was jailed in Crookston. He was released Tuesday on his promise to reappear for sentencing Feb. 26, a court spokeswoman said.
He was charged with and pleaded guilty to three counts: check forgery, felony theft and felony theft by swindle, all which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Vedbraaten, who works in a local lumberyard and also moonlights as a carpenter, appeared Tuesday without an attorney.
The fact that the congregation is between pastors and, therefore not paying a salary, and that the sale of the previous pastor’s home was closed in December, netting the congregation a profit, meant the theft did not show up in bounced checks, said former chairman of the congregation, Duane Trostad. “That’s why it wasn’t caught real quick,” Trostad said. About 35 people attend the congregation regularly, Trostad said.
The congregation is getting weekend preaching by elders from sister congregations in Moorhead and Bemidji while it seeks a new pastor, Trostad said.
“Financially, we are fine,” Trostad said. “This church is in the soul-saving business, not in the business of prosecuting people, necessarily.”
The Church of Christ in Crookston is part of a nondenominational movement that has little church government above the local congregation but is affiliated with an annual convention of several thousand like-minded congregations. It also is affiliated with several Bible colleges, including Crossroads College in Rochester, Minn., formerly known as Minnesota Bible College.
It’s Web site is www.crookston-churchofchrist.com.
Not well-known in the Upper Midwest, the Church of Christ has roots in the Southern-based Christian Church/Disciples of Christ denomination.
Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237, or (800) 477-6572, ext. 237, slee@gfherald.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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