Former Vallejo High School principal pleads guilty to defrauding churches

VALLEJO – Former Vallejo High School principal Sheila Quintana pleaded guilty last Tuesday in a conspiracy defrauding congregations of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and private lenders, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.

Quintana, 71, of Vallejo, and co-defendant Staccato Powell, 65, of Wake Forest, N.C., were indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2022 for conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Powell, a former bishop of the AME Zion Church, was accused of leading the conspiracy. 

Prosecutors said that Powell and Quintana acquired 13 properties and took out loans encumbering congregations in San Jose, Oakland, Palo Alto and Los Angeles, all at the detriment of their constituents and despite their protests.

Quintana is scheduled to appear in court on July 15 for a status hearing. She faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, lowered from a previous 20-year potential sentence. She agreed to cooperate with prosecutors while Powell’s case is pending. An attorney for Powell did not respond to request for comment.

As part of her guilty plea, Quintana admitted to having helped Powell mislead church leaders into signing over their property deeds as well as forging documents to falsely show that local congregations had approved loans secured against their church’s property. Together, they allegedly obtained fraudulent mortgages on churches across California.

The first documented case of fraud in the litigation occurred in Vallejo in 2017. Quintana obtained a $500,000 mortgage using Kyles Temple in Vallejo and Greater Cooper in Oakland as collateral to help purchase a $1.5 million residence in Granite Bay intended as an episcopal home for Powell, according to court documents. To achieve this, Quintana forged documents stating that Kyles Temple’s board members had met, discussed and approved the loan. 

The loan was signed in March 2017 even though the temple’s pastor and members eventually found out and objected, according to court documents. 

Pastor Gail Jack, who currently leads Kyles Temple, said in an interview that  “those issues have since been resolved,” and “the church dealt with” Powell and that a new bishop has taken his place.

Regarding Quintana, Jack said, “we are praying for her” and declined further comment. 

According to prosecutors, Powell founded a nonprofit called Western Episcopal District Inc. (WED) in 2016, naming himself CEO and appointing Quintana as CFO in 2017. The two allegedly used WED to take control of church properties by re-deeding them under WED’s name so as to take out high-interest loans without the need to prove the church’s consent in the matter.

As the bishop overseeing the Western region of the U.S., Powell had the authority to fire or remove local pastors at will, using his influence to pressure the church into submission and deceive pastors into signing over the property deeds, Quintana explained in her plea. 

Between September 2018 and June 2019, Quintana signed three checks totaling $67,500 from WED’s bank account to her spouse. She states in her plea that Powell instructed her to remunerate herself in recognition for her service to that amount. She admitted she concealed the payments from everyone except Powell.

WED filed for bankruptcy in July 2020, with property assets valued at $26.3 million and $12.5 million in debt. The holdings included 11 churches, a parsonage and Powell’s official residence.