Harlem Deacon Conned Congregants Out Of Thousands, Lawsuits Say

HARLEM, NY — A deacon at one of Harlem's historic Abyssinian Baptist Church conned congregants into giving him thousands of dollars to perform contracting work at their homes, but used the money to pay for his taxes, vacations and tuition payments for his daughter's school, according to lawsuits filed in federal court.

Jerome Yeiser is accused of scamming two separate pairs of congregants out of nearly $250,000, according to court documents. Yeiser posed as a licensed general contractor and convinced parishioners of Abyssinian Baptist to trust him with the renovation of two Harlem properties, according to the separate lawsuits.

John and Cheryl Graves approached Yeiser with plans to renovate the basement of their Madison Avenue brownstone in 2014, ultimately agreeing on a project that would cost the couple just over $17,000. After plunking down a $5,000 down payment, the Graves couple were told that Yeiser would be their primary point of contact for the duration of the project, according to court documents.

The project went awry "very quickly," according to documents filed in federal bankruptcy court. Yeiser failed to produce valid licensing documents when asked, would rarely return calls and texts and failed to pay subcontractors. The subcontractors eventually reached out to Graves for payment, which raised "serious concerns," according to the lawsuit.

Graves eventually confronted Yeiser at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, where he told them that he had spent the money they provided on a personal vacation and tuition for his daughter's school. The two parties came to a new agreement to finish the work, but the work never got done. The Graves were forced to hire other contractors to finish the basement renovation at a cost of more than $29,000.

Four years later, Yeiser roped congregants Mara Schiavocampo and Tommie Porter into a similar scheme, according to a second lawsuit filed in federal bankruptcy court. Schiavocampo and Porter hired Yeiser to fully renovate a building on West 131st Street for the purposes of using it as a rental building.

Yeiser's actions mirrored those he took during the Graves renovation, the second suit says. After coming to a payment agreement, the deacon proved hard to contact, failed to pay subcontractors and gave excuses as to why work was not being done on schedule, according to court documents. Schiavocampo and Porter were duped out of $198,000, according to court documents.

Both sets of plaintiffs said that they reached out to Abyssinian Baptist Church Pastor Calvin Butts after realizing that they were scammed, and were "shocked" when Butts told them that other congregants had fallen victim to Yeiser's schemes in the past.

A request for comment from the church was not immediately returned.