Eric Readon’s Elder Fraud Case and Return to the Pulpit

The Eric Readon elder fraud case ended in a 2025 guilty plea in Miami-Dade County, where the Miami Gardens pastor admitted to exploiting a 76-year-old retired postal worker named Edward Fuller out of the home Fuller had spent 35 years building. Readon was sentenced to 364 days in jail followed by 15 years of probation and ordered to pay $180,000 in restitution. He served about ten months, was released in May 2026, and returned to his pulpit within days. Separate no-contest pleas in Broward County added roughly 11 more years of supervision and another $196,500 in restitution to two other victims.

How Readon Took Edward Fuller’s Home

In July 2015, Fuller had finished the exterior of a house at 10911 NW 19th Avenue in Miami but lacked the money to complete the interior. Readon, then pastor of New Beginnings Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, offered to arrange financing for a $15,000 fee.¹

The catch, Readon told him, was that the lender required a co-owner. Fuller signed a quitclaim deed handing 50 percent of the property to Project Youth Outreach Unlimited, a Florida nonprofit Readon controlled with his wife Lakeisha listed as director, secretary, and treasurer. Readon promised to sign the ownership back once construction was done.²

Over the next 18 months, prosecutors said, Readon ran a series of additional deed transfers, construction loans, mortgage modifications, and credit card advances designed to obscure what was happening. By the end he owned the property outright and sold it. Fuller got none of the proceeds and was left with thousands in credit card debt and no home. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office put the total loss at roughly $267,000.¹

Readon used the same house to defraud a young couple, Safiyah and Calvin Singleton. They paid him $3,100 under a rent-to-buy arrangement and were left without a place to live shortly before their first Christmas as newlyweds.²

The Charges and the Miami-Dade Plea

On February 15, 2022, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Readon’s arrest. He was 46. A grand jury returned five felony counts:

Exploitation of an elderly or disabled person, a first-degree felony
Organized scheme to defraud, a first-degree felony
Conspiracy to commit organized scheme to defraud, a second-degree felony
Theft from a person 65 years or older, a first-degree felony
Grand theft, a third-degree felony

Conviction at trial on all counts carried a potential sentence ranging from six years to life.³ Readon posted bond and remained free for more than three years while the case moved through the docket.

On June 16, 2025, he pleaded guilty to a single count of exploitation of an elderly person. The negotiated deal set his sentence at 364 days in the Miami-Dade County jail, followed by 15 years of probation, with $180,000 in restitution to Fuller.⁴ A separate grand theft auto charge, tied to an April 2025 arrest in Pembroke Pines involving a fake wire transfer used to obtain a Range Rover from Braman Motors, was folded into the deal and closed.³ He surrendered on July 15, 2025.

The Failed Attempt to Withdraw the Plea

Soon after starting his sentence, Readon moved to withdraw the guilty plea. He said his former attorney, Matthew Rogoff, had pressured him into taking it, failed to complete depositions, and did not properly review late-arriving discovery.

On November 18, 2025, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Christine Hernández denied the motion. She pointed to Readon’s own statements at the plea hearing that he had not been threatened or forced, and to phone logs and text messages showing more than 50 communications with Rogoff in which Readon himself initiated the plea discussions. The defense, she found, had not shown that outstanding depositions or late discovery would have changed anything: “the defendant still would have taken the plea.”⁵

The Broward County Property Cases

The Fuller scheme was not the only property fraud Readon faced. The Broward State Attorney’s Office charged him with stealing two other homes. In Davie, Readon and an associate named Joseph Riley were accused of altering a deed to take a $1.75 million property from Jannette Spence without her consent. In Lauderdale Lakes, prosecutors said Readon persuaded Nixon Belotte to sign over his property under false pretenses without paying as agreed. Both victims eventually recovered their homes through civil court.⁶

On May 23, 2025, Readon entered no-contest pleas before Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra to two counts of first-degree grand theft. Prosecutors dropped the original organized fraud and false-document charges. He was sentenced to two years of community control followed by roughly 11 years of probation, with $150,000 in restitution to Spence and $46,500 to Belotte.⁷

What Fuller Lost

Fuller was 79 by the time the criminal case resolved. He had intended to leave the house to his daughters. Instead he relocated more than 500 miles away to Georgia, where he bought a modest home and set about repairing his credit. He described the experience to reporters as “disheartening” and “difficult.” As of September 2025 he had received none of the $180,000 in court-ordered restitution, and reporting in May 2026 said it remained unclear how much, if any, had been paid since.⁸⁹

Release and Return to the Pulpit

Readon left jail in May 2026 after serving 303 days of his 364-day sentence, with credit for gain-time reductions. Within days, New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens promoted a “Readon Returns” worship service. On May 17, 2026, he led a one-hour service before roughly 20 attendees, telling them, “How do you handle life when you got to choose between God and the law?”¹⁰

His formal role at the church going forward has not been described publicly, and it is not clear whether the terms of his Miami-Dade probation or his remaining Broward supervision impose any limits on his ministry activities.⁹

On May 28, 2026, Judge Kollra granted a defense request to convert Readon’s Broward community control to standard probation. His attorney argued that the stricter monitoring made pastoral duties difficult. The change did not alter the $150,000 owed to Spence or the $46,500 owed to Belotte, and Readon remains on Broward probation through May 2037.⁷

Other Pending Exposure

In January 2025, a landlord entity called 16801 NW LLC sued Readon, his wife, and New Beginning MBC Inc. in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The complaint alleged that the defendants leased a commercial property at 16801 NW 27th Avenue for $10,000 a month, failed to pay rent, bounced a check, and presented a fraudulent screenshot of a $25,000 Zelle transfer. It also alleged unapproved demolition inside the unit and continued church services under a tent in the parking lot after a December 2024 eviction. The landlord sought more than $200,000. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office was reviewing whether the alleged conduct warranted new criminal charges; none had been filed as of late 2025.¹¹

Earlier Record

Readon’s criminal history predates the Fuller scheme by decades. Court records show charges dating to 1995 for grand theft, burglary, and strong-arm robbery in Miami-Dade County. He never served prison time for those offenses; his most serious punishment was three years of probation with community control. In a 2012 statement Readon acknowledged that before dedicating his life to ministry he “robbed,” stole cars, and sold drugs. He also faced misdemeanor worthless-check charges in 2010, 2012, and 2013; the 2010 and 2012 cases were dismissed after trial.¹²

Where the Case Stands

Readon is serving concurrent probation terms in two counties. In Miami-Dade he has 15 years of probation and owes $180,000 in restitution to Edward Fuller. In Broward he is on probation through May 2037 and owes $196,500 in combined restitution to Jannette Spence and Nixon Belotte. The landlord’s civil fraud suit is unresolved. How much of any restitution has actually been paid is not publicly known.⁷

1
Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. Businessman Pastor Charged in Scheme to Defraud Elderly Man
2
NBC Miami. Well-Known Miami Gardens Pastor Arrested in Scheme to Defraud Elderly Man Out of Home
3
Miami Herald. Pastor Eric Readon Faces Charges in Scheme to Defraud Elderly Man
4
WPLG Local 10. Pastor Tries to Back Out of Fraud Guilty Plea, Blames Local 10 Coverage
5
WPLG Local 10. Miami Gardens Pastor Will Remain in Jail After Judge Rejects Plea Withdrawal
6
WPLG Local 10. Embattled South Florida Pastor Takes Plea in Fraud Case
7
WPLG Local 10. Miami Gardens Pastor Convicted of Grand Theft Has Community Control Changed to Probation
8
WPLG Local 10. 79-Year-Old Retired Postal Worker Forced to Start Over After Miami Gardens Pastor Betrays His Trust
9
WPLG Local 10. Felon Former Pastor Eric Readon Welcomed Back to Miami Gardens Church Following Prison Sentence
10
Miami Herald. Pastor Back at Church After Serving Time
11
WPLG Local 10. Miami Gardens Pastor Faces New Civil Fraud Suit While Serving Sentence in Separate Criminal Case
12
Miami Times. Pastor Eric Readon’s Business Transactions Breed Legal Troubles