**Editor’s Note** We would like to bring to your attention an update regarding a quote featured in the above article. Upon further review, we discovered that the initial citation did not accurately reflect the original context and was provided on background. We have since corrected this quote to ensure it aligns with the intended message. We sincerely apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused to our readers. Accuracy is of utmost importance to us, and we appreciate your understanding as we strive to maintain the highest standards of quality in our reporting.
A former deacon at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church is still being investigated by local law enforcement for allegations of fraud and stealing from fellow parishioners since 2019.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Bronx District Attorney for all of her hard work on this case and remain hopeful for justice,” said Mara and Tommie Porter, former congregation members, in a statement.
Former deacon Jerome Yeiser worked for the Porters as a contractor, and began renovations for them on their brownstone on W. 131st Street in 2018. Porter said that work started off well, but within months, had stopped altogether. Workers began complaining to the couple that they hadn’t been paid in months, although the Porters had made regular payments to Yeiser.
Over a seven-month period, the Porters say they paid $480,341 for the renovation project. Only $288,283 of this money was accounted for and $194,058 remains missing, according to Porter. She alleges in a lawsuit that Yeiser confessed that the money was frozen in his bank account due to a tax lien. Yeiser claimed he only owed the couple $30,000, according to the lawsuit.
The Porters took the issue to Abyssinian’s leader at the time, Rev. Dr. Calvin Otis Butts III, and say they were told that they were the third family that Yeiser had stolen from. Abyssinian Church leadership was thrown into a nearly two-year search for a new pastor after Butts died, and only recently elected Rev. Dr. Kevin Johnson as an official replacement.
An Abyssinian representative told the Amsterdam News that the issue between Yeiser and the Porters is a “private matter and does not involve Abyssinian Baptist Church.”
The fraud case was temporarily paused due to the COVID pandemic in 2020 and reopened in 2022.
Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg is known to attend Abyssinian and had a relationship with Yeiser: Bragg taught Yeiser’s children years ago in Sunday school, the DA’s office confirmed. The office received the complaint and, in August 2022, referred the matter to Bronx DA Darcel Clark’s office after Bragg recused himself.
In a 2024 letter to the Bronx DA and provided to the AmNews, Abyssinian’s Deacon Board wrote that it was not told about Yeiser’s criminal history and civil litigation—court documents indicate that Yeiser was indicted on felony charges before his time at Abyssinian.
The federal criminal case was held in Arizona from 2002 to 2005 and involved charges related to drug trafficking and cocaine distribution going back to 1996. Yeiser was in college at the time, according to the court timeline, and made a plea agreement. He was referred to home confinement, as opposed to a halfway house or boot camp program, during sentencing.
His wife, Avis Yeiser, also a former deacon at the church, had pleaded guilty to money laundering around that time.
Before Butts died in 2022, according to the letter, church leadership held a private meeting in 2019 and confronted Yeiser about the allegations of stealing from three families: John and Cheryl Graves, who claimed Yeiser took $20,000 from them; Tommie and Mara Porter; and a third, unnamed couple. The letter notes that, while contrite in the meeting, even crying and praying, Yeiser immediately about-faced when he left and claimed all the families were lying.
The Abyssinian representative said the 2024 letter received by the Bronx DA was “not authorized or authored by Abyssinian Baptist Church.” She also said that the Bronx DA has been notified that this was not an official communication by actual church leadership.
The Yeisers were voted off the deacon board in 2019, according to the letter. Yeiser went on to file a defamation suit against the Porter and Grave couples, denying all allegations against him. The AmNews reached out to Yeiser for comment on the allegations. He said in a curt text message that “there are no church people” and didn’t elaborate.
Editor’s Note
Mara and Tommie Porter were improperly quoted in a previous version of this article. They provided only the following statement to the Amsterdam News: “We are incredibly grateful to the Bronx District Attorney for all of her hard work on this case and remain hopeful for justice.”
[updated Thursday, Oct 23]
A career long criminal couple was among them for decades
Why does there exists so much criminal conduct by and among House of Worship Members and Clergy? Sex abuse of children, illicit sexual relations by Clergy and Congregation Members, drug sales and drug use, questionable financial deals and self-dealings—you name it. It seems folks use the non-profit and constitutional right to religion to provide cover for misdeeds. Maybe the tax exemption for Houses of Worship ought be lifted and they be mandated to pay taxes ought be done.