Rev. LuTimothy May alleges Lumon May involved in illegal attempt to seize church land

Friendship Missionary Baptist Church has been a large church in Pensacola for 85 years, and now the congregation's property is in the crosshairs of a dispute between Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May and the Rev. LuTimothy May.

The Rev. LuTimothy May, who pastors Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, is alleging his brother, Lumon May, and his sister, attorney LaRuby May, are involved in a criminal effort to take property that belongs to the church.

He alleges that his siblings and other former members of the church held an illegitimate meeting purporting to be the church and voted to transfer the church's property to a new nonprofit entity they created.

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Additionally, a current senior-level county employee and a former county employee signed documents as witnesses.

The pastor has gone to the police with the allegations and has retained legal counsel to fight the attempt to take the properties in court.

James Bryant with The Cochran Firm out of Los Angeles, California, is representing the church and said he believes Lumon May, LaRuby May and the others who signed documents on the church's property are engaged in fraud.

"At the end of the day, this is a fraudulent attempt to transfer title," Bryant said. "That's exactly what it is. It is title fraud."

Lumon May and LaRuby May, who prepared the deeds, declined to comment to the News Journal.

The family dispute burst into the public realm in 2020 when LuTimothy challenged his brother for his commission seat in the Democratic Party primary.

Lumon easily fended off the challenge from his brother.

Their father, Theophalis May, pastored Friendship Missionary Baptist Church for 38 years before his death in 2006, and the congregation selected LuTimothy May as its new pastor. The church has been an institution in the Black community for 85 years.

LuTimothy said regardless of whatever dispute may exist between him and the rest of his family, it is not right to go after a property owned by the congregation of the church.

"One of my deacons said to me the other day that we were a church long before your father was pastor," he said.

The church started in 1937 at a house on Blount Street. Theophalis May was the fourth pastor to lead the church, beginning in 1969. The elder May expanded and built most of the church building that still occupies 1213 W. Blount St.

On Feb. 28, Lumon May signed a deed to transfer two parcels of property owned by the church to a new nonprofit entity controlled by other members of the May family and a former member of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church.

The two deeds were signed on behalf of "Unincorporated Friendship Missionary Baptist Church" to convey the property at 1213 W. Blount St. and the property at 1400 N. J St. to the "Original Friendship Missionary Baptist Church."

The same day, a new nonprofit was registered with the Florida Department of State called "The Original Friendship M.B. Church Inc."

Accompanying May's signature on the deeds was an Escambia County senior employee and former county employee.

Neighborhood and Human Services Director Clara Long signed the deeds as a witness and Aretta Green, who used to work directly for Commissioner May at the county as his official aide, notarized the two documents.

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The deeds were filed with the Escambia County Clerk of Court's Official Records on March 1.

Filing false property documents on official records is a felony in Florida.

LuTimothy May said the church filed complaints with both the Pensacola Police Department and the Escambia County Sheriff's Office as one property is in the city and the other property in the county.

Pensacola Police Department spokesman Mike Wood told the News Journal that police took a report from the church and the case remains under investigation.

ECSO spokeswoman Amber Southard confirmed that LuTimothy May filed a fraud complaint with the Sheriff's Office on March 22 and the agency is looking into the complaint.

Additionally, Escambia County Property Appraiser Chris Jones told the News Journal that the land transfer is being reviewed by the office's attorneys before any change in the tax rolls becomes finalized.

Who has the authority to transfer deeds?

The 1213 W. Blount St. was bought by the church in 1952, and the church listed it for sale last year.

The 1400 N. J St. property was bought by the church in 2005, and it remains a vacant parcel.

Tax records show the church has been paying the small amount of property taxes it is assessed each year as a religious organization for the properties since it has.

In Florida, church property can be conveyed or sold with the authorization of church trustees, whether the church is incorporated or unincorporated.

Public records show that for most of the church's history, it existed as an unincorporated church until it incorporated in 2009.

Annual reports show that various members of the May family served as directors of the corporation along with LuTimothy May.

Record keeping in smaller churches can be spotty, but LuTimothy May said that the church has operated "by the book" under its bylaws.

Starting with the 2019 report, other May family members were no longer listed as directors in the church's corporate filings with the Florida Department of State.

The last time Lumon May appears to have signed any document as a church trustee was in 2005 when the property at 1400 N. J St. was purchased by the church.

The Feb. 28 deeds state Lumon May was acting as trustee of the "Unincorporated Friendship Missionary Baptist Church," but it's unclear how this unincorporated entity had continued to exist alongside the incorporated church.

Making matters more complicated, the church's 2009 incorporation documents state that the registered agent at the time was LaRuby May.

"In 2009, (the church) converted itself from an unincorporated entity to a nonprofit corporation, and they know this," Byrant said. "... They are submitting documents, actual legal documents to a government agency that are purely fraudulent."

The 2009 articles of incorporation say the selection of corporate directors' is governed by the church's bylaws.

A copy of the church's bylaws provided to the News Journal doesn't reference directors of the corporation but vest the power to convey land to trustees that are named by the pastor.

Mortgages and meetings

In 2013, Pen Air Federal Credit Union was confident enough in the incorporated church's ownership that it approved a $800,000 mortgage on its current main campus in Brownsville with the 1213 W. Blount St. listed as collateral.

Five church trustees signed the mortgage along with LuTimothy May. One of the trustees signing on behalf of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Inc. signed her name as Tammie Walker. Her legal name is Lucille Walker.

Walker is also listed as the registered agent of the new nonprofit The Original Friendship M.B. Church Inc.

Walker told the News Journal that she did not sign the 2013 mortgage, though she knew the mortgage had been taken out in 2013 when she was a trustee in the incorporated church. She said, at the time, she was told she did not have good enough credit to sign the mortgage.

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"It might have my signature on it, but I didn't sign it," Walker said.

Walker remained a trustee up until at least 2017, according to church records provided to the News Journal.

LuTimothy May said Walker may have been told she couldn't sign the agreement to repay because of her credit. He pointed out that only he and the chairman of the trustees at the time signed that part of the mortgage agreement and had to have their personal credit checked as part of the process.

"Perhaps she was confused and doesn't remember," he said.

The part of the mortgage document signed by all five trustees was a page authorizing the church to use the property as collateral for the loan.

The mortgage document is notarized by Pensacola attorney John Monroe, who stated all five trustees produced their driver's licenses to prove their identity to sign the document.

Monroe told the News Journal Walker was there in person with the other trustees and he saw her sign the document.

"That's why I notarized it," Monroe said.

He said he still has copies of the driver's licenses of everyone who signed the mortgage.

Walker said she left the church a few years ago because she was "put out" by the leadership, though she declined to elaborate.

Walker joined Lumon May and Monica Sword, another former church member, at a meeting at the Adoration for a New Beginning Church on Feb. 25, when they voted as the unincorporated church to convey the two parcels to the Original Friendship M.B. Church Inc.

Resolutions documenting these votes were filed as a public record with the Escambia Clerk of Court's Office after the property appraiser's office asked for additional documentation.

LaRuby May, who appears to have been acting as attorney for the group, sent LuTimothy May a notice of the meeting via email, declaring him a trustee of the unincorporated church as well and informing him of the meeting.

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The resolution documented the vote, saying it was 3-0 with LuTimothy May absent.

When he first saw the email about the meeting, LuTimothy said he didn't know what to make of the email.

"I was like is this spam or is this a joke?" he said. "…I'm the pastor of the church, and we meet here every week."

He said he informed other church leaders of the email and they decided to wait and see what would happen.

Another meeting notice came for a meeting on March 9 now claiming to be the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Inc., the actual nonprofit corporation for the church. The agenda for the meeting listed a change in church leadership as an agenda item as well as the disposition of property and listed the church's addresses that make up the church's main location in Brownsville at 2601 W. Strong St.

At that point, the actual church sent a cease-and-desist letter to the group on March 8. A copy of the letter was also sent to all county commission members. The letter was signed by all five church trustees and the chairman of the deacon board.

It wasn't until the church received a letter from the Escambia County Property Appraiser's office notifying them that there was a problem processing a deed transfer and they needed to call the office that they found out the deeds had been filed against their property without their authorization.

Jones, the county's property appraiser, told the News Journal that the two transfers of the church's property were flagged in what his office internally calls a "trouble file," meaning there's not enough documentation to change the listed owner of the property.

Jones said was personally unaware of the issue until he was contacted by the News Journal last week. He said like all cases in the office's "trouble file," it's being reviewed by attorneys before proceeding.

Family dispute goes public

LuTimothy wouldn't get into details about why the split occurred, saying any dispute with his family should have nothing to do with what he said is an attempt to steal property belonging to the congregation.

He pointed out that his mother attended church regularly until 2019 and even attended his wedding to Ebony Lang May, who is now the executive pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church.

By 2020 whatever unity in the family existed was split and the Pensacola political scene was rocked when LuTimothy May declared he was running against his own brother, Lumon May, for his county commission seat.

At the time, LuTimothy May disputed that he was running to challenge his brother, but rather running to improve the county. Today, speaking of his brother and his race, Lutimothy said "he knows why I ran."

During the campaign, the brothers' mother, Mary May, ended up putting out a public statement endorsing Lumon, and a part of the court record from LuTimothy's 2015 divorce was posted on social media.

Lumon May ended up winning by nearly 90% of the vote.

A few months later on Election Day in November, the dispute escalated as LuTimothy May tried to have a trailer he said belonged to him towed from a rental property Lumon May owned.

Lumon confronted LuTimothy, asking him to leave his property and eventually pulling out a baseball bat. The bat was taken out of Lumon May's hands by his tenant, former Escambia County Sheriff's Office deputy and mayoral candidate Steven Sharp.

LuTimothy filed a police report several days after the incident against Lumon. PPD investigated the incident as an assault, talking to several witnesses, but the State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the case because the interaction between the two brothers did not meet the requirements for an assault, according to the police report.

LuTimothy tried to file a restraining order against his brother after the confrontation.

It was during that Feb. 4, 2021, hearing on the restraining order that Lumon May said under oath he hadn't been to the church in several years and that he "was a trustee," clearly using the past tense, according to a video recording of the hearing.

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Lumon May also testified that LuTimothy May had confronted other members of the family at a Fourth of July party a few years before with a gun, something LuTimothy disputes.

Judge Stephen Pitre said in the court hearing that LuTimothy had proven that Lumon had held a baseball bat and "did not intend to play baseball," but there was not enough evidence to support a restraining order so he dismissed the case.

During the hearing, Lumon May said that the family had tried to talk with LuTimothy May several times.

"Probably for the last seven or eight years, the entire family has tried to talk to you," Lumon said in the court hearing as LuTimothy, who was representing himself, asked Lumon questions. "And on many occasions, I've said 'LuTimothy, get yourself together because we really need to talk.'"

Lumon said during the hearing that it's probably been several years since he had reached out to LuTimothy and five years since he had gone to the church.

Where the congregation stands

Speaking to the News Journal last week, LuTimothy had to leave the room after becoming emotional when asked why siblings would try to claim church property.

"If I knew exactly that answer, I think I would have a little bit of resolve, but I can't figure it out," LuTimothy said. "There's been years of circumstances that mislead people because of narratives that are being told. … They just paint a narrative that '(LuTimothy is) over there, and we're over here. And (LuTimothy) has issues, and we don't. (LuTimothy) has an addiction, and we don't. Nobody wants to be around (LuTimothy), and they want to be with us.' I don't know."

More than 100 people attended worship services at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday, March 27. May preached a sermon out of the book of Acts where King Herod Agrippa persecuted the early Christian church, before informing the members of the church about the filing on the church's property.

The split in the family and the COVID-19 pandemic have driven many away from the church as it went from more than 1,500 members to currently a rough estimate of 300 to 500 members, according to LuTimothy May.

Many members left at the church remain fiercely loyal to LuTimothy and Ebony May as leaders of their congregation, and are saddened by the situation but are leaning on their faith to get the church through.

Bernice Rudolph, 71, has been a member of the church for more than 50 years.

"I know God's got this all under control," Rudolph said. "I'm saddened but we are going to continue to pray. The devil is not going to win."

Others in the church are angry.

"We're in a church, so I'll just say I'm pissed," chairman of the church's board of trustees Elton Moody said.

Moody said he's from Brooklyn, New York, originally and moved to Pensacola in 2007 after retiring from the Navy.

"In the military, we don't do this," Moody said. "There's a certain chain of command, a certain order. God calls us to do things in order. This (situation) is so out of order."

Shannon Smith, the mother of Moiya Dixon, said LuTimothy and Ebony May along with the rest of the church were the only people who would stand by her when the father of her grandchildren, Corey Marioneaux Jr., was charged with attempted murder on a PPD officer after a bungled SWAT raid in the early morning hours on a home where Marioneax and his two young children were sleeping.

"I had no idea what to do," Smith said. "We've never dealt with anything like that, so of course, I called my pastor."

The church brought in national attorneys to defend Marioneaux and a month later the State Attorney's Office announced it was dropping the charges against Marioneaux, who fired one shot when someone entered the house, not knowing it was a police officer and immediately surrendered when he realized it was the police.

Smith said she didn't know where her family would be without the church.

"Both of them fought for us in a way that I could not fight for my own children," Smith said.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Rev. LuTimothy May alleges Lumon May is illegally claiming church land