{"id":229268,"date":"2026-03-20T23:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229268\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T23:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:27:15","slug":"woman-secretly-sold-oakland-churchs-parking-lot-stole-480k-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229268\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman secretly sold Oakland church’s parking lot, stole $480K"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 A woman who worked for an Oakland church secretly sold off its parking lot, prosecutors say in new charges alleging she stole as much as $480,000 from the congregation\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n

Hayward resident Eva Bowen Brown, 73, is accused of committing fraud and grand theft by embezzlement during the years she served as financial secretary of the Seventh Avenue Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

The alleged theft dealt a financial blow to to the small brick-and-mortar place of worship nestled in Oakland\u2019s diverse Eastlake area. The building\u2019s doors were padlocked from the outside on Thursday, while a past-due water bill lay on the front step.<\/p>\n

Down the street, a handful of vehicles sat in the church\u2019s former parking lot, where a blue sign that reads \u201c7th Avenue Church\u201d still sits over a chain-link fence.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Jeffrey Kirton fired Brown in 2023 after discovering the church\u2019s bank accounts were overdrawn and that its funds were being misspent, according to the Alameda County District Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Reached this week, a woman who identified herself as Brown\u2019s sister said there had been no wrongdoing at the church, accusing its leaders of \u201crunning around town telling ugly stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is going through hell and high water trying to clear her name from these untruths,\u201d the woman, who declined to be named, said of Brown.<\/p>\n

The problem is widespread, with roughly 10% of Protestant pastors saying in a 2017 survey that their church funds were embezzled. A bishop pleaded guilty last year to fraudulently obtaining church properties<\/a> for profit in several Bay Area cities, while a Catholic priest was convicted in 2017 of pilfering about $1.4 million<\/a> from the Diocese of San Jose.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 7th Avenue Baptist Church parking lot on Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. Eva Bowen Brown, a 76-year-old Hayward resident, who worked as the financial secretary for the church is accused of embezzling as much as $480,000 from its coffers. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prosecutors in this case allege\u00a0Brown stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in church offerings between 2019 and 2023, frequently making excuses to the congregation\u2019s leadership for why she could not deliver written financial reports.<\/p>\n

Brown, the sole keyholder of the church\u2019s mailbox, would also intercept incoming mail in order to cover her tracks, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Property records indicate Brown carried out a $27,500 sale of the church parking lot to Comprehensive Care LP \u2014 the former business name of a local nursing facility, Bay Area Healthcare Center, which is located a few blocks away on 10th Avenue.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Brown fraudulently represented herself as chief financial officer of the church in negotiating the July 2022 transaction with Shirley Ma, an executive of the nursing facility, which had been leasing the lot since 2016 to meet its own parking needs.<\/p>\n

An accountant at the Bay Area Healthcare Center told the DA\u2019s office there was no reason to suspect Brown lacked authority to sell the lot. Ma did not respond to questions about the sale.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 7th Avenue Baptist Church on Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. Eva Bowen Brown, a 76-year-old Hayward resident, who worked as the financial secretary for the church is accused of embezzling as much as $480,000 from its coffers. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Bettencourt, an inspector at the DA\u2019s office, appeared confident in the charging documents that the church leadership board\u2019s members\u00a0were \u201ccompletely unaware of what (Brown) had been up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirton, the documents state, only discovered the lot had been sold nearly a year later when he began investigating the church\u2019s finances, ultimately concluding that about $480,000 in funds had been embezzled \u201cfor Brown\u2019s benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Checks issued by the church were required to have signatures from both Brown and a treasurer, the latter of whom has not been charged.<\/p>\n

Seventh Avenue Baptist Church sits among a large handful of congregations in the Eastlake area, which is known for its diverse blend of residents, including many immigrant families.<\/p>\n

Despite operating for decades, however, the church seems to keep a low profile, with little online footprint and a listed telephone number that does not appear to be active.<\/p>\n

Kirton, a Seventh Avenue member since 1981 who became a pastor in 2013, declined an interview request, saying he had been advised to \u201chold my peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 A woman who worked for an Oakland church secretly sold off its parking lot, prosecutors say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,861,7,8,138,332,1529,9356,181,100,143,145,144,182,388,385,6163],"class_list":["post-229268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-east-bay","tag-east-bay-crime","tag-lake-merritt","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-pm-report","tag-real-estate","tag-regional","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}