Baptist preacher faces lawsuit
Allegedly defrauded parishioner who suffered stroke
Court documents recently obtained by the Maryland Independent reveal that a prominent Southern Maryland Baptist preacher and his wife currently face a lawsuit brought on by a 72-year-old parishioner after the couple allegedly defrauded him for a large sum of money under their care while he recovered from a stroke. The plaintiff is requesting $500,000 in damages and all other relief the court deems fit.
A former pastor at Hughesville Baptist Church and current director of missions at Potomac Baptist Association of Maryland, Keith D. Corrick of Leonardtown and his wife, Teresa D. Corrick, are facing a pending civil suit in Charles County Circuit Court, and have since attempted to file bankruptcy, court records indicate. Their two sons, Brian and Gregory Corrick, are also listed as defendants along with Stacey Corrick, Gregory’s wife.
The Potomac Baptist Association of Maryland has 33 affiliated churches located throughout Charles, Calvert, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s counties.
The plaintiff alleges that Keith and Teresa “took money and other assets … and distributed these assets to themselves, to their family members, and to their creditors,” after the elderly man was induced to sign over power of attorney to them from his hospital bed, just days after suffering a stroke, court records indicate.
On Oct. 30, 2011, the then
67–year–old man suffered a stroke and was hospitalized, court records show. At the time, Keith served as a pastor at Hughesville Baptist Church, where the plaintiff was a parishioner.
On Nov. 4, 2011, after the couple allegedly offered to manage his financial affairs for him, the plaintiff appointed Teresa as his attorney–in–fact and Keith as the alternate.
After his release from the hospital, the plaintiff lived with Gregory and Stacey Corrick in St. Mary’s County from December 2011 to late September 2014.
The durable power of attorney remained in force until it was revoked by the plaintiff on Oct. 6, 2014.
During his stay with the Corrick family, the plaintiff claims he bought a 10–acre plot of land, “Bear Ridge,” in Barbour County, W. Va., for $23,650 on June 28, 2012, from Keith and Teresa, though the title for the land was not transferred for another two years, court records show.
“In the summer of 2013 … Stacey L. Corrick bragged that her mother–in–law Teresa Diane Corrick had ‘manipulated’ the plaintiff into ‘buying’ the Bear Ridge property, and ‘[he] … thinks he owns property in West Virginia, but really he doesn’t,’” the complaint states. The plaintiff further alleged that the transfer of the land title over two years later was an effort to “cover the tracks of one of their many wrongful acts.”
Keith Corrick and the attorneys on both sides of the pending litigation have declined comment on the case.
However, the defendants responded to the plaintiff’s complaint on March 21, and denied all allegations of defrauding the man, court records show. Keith, Teresa, Brian, Gregory and Stacey Corrick all signed the document.
Two weeks later on April 8, Keith and Teresa filed for joint–bankruptcy under Chapter 7 in U.S. District Court of Greenbelt, though the case was dismissed after they failed to comply with the court–ordered instruction to re-file bankruptcy under Chapter 13, court records indicate. Generally, debtors are disqualified from a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing if their regular income is deemed too high by the court. A Chapter 13 filing is a re-organizational bankruptcy in which the debtor can pay back at least a portion of what is owed to creditors through a payment plan, rather than liquidating all non-exempt assets through a Chapter 7 filing.
Keith Corrick’s bankruptcy filing indicates that his salary as director of missions at the Potomac Baptist Association is more than $93,000.
A graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Washington Bible College, Keith Corrick has pastored at four different churches over 31 years — Yale Heights Baptist Mission, Beltsville Baptist Church, Liberty Baptist Church and Hughesville Baptist Church — before accepting the position as director of missions at the Potomac Baptist Association of Maryland, according to the PBA website. He has also served on many levels of state and associated denomination work, including a term as vice–president of the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware general mission board.
Teresa Corrick serves as the women’s ministry leader for the PBA, according to court records.
Gregory Corrick is the head varsity baseball coach and former athletic director at Southern Maryland Christian Academy in White Plains. Brian Corrick serves as a pastor at Gethsemane Baptist Church in Glenelg, the PBA website states.
After a June 1 hearing in Charles County Circuit Court was vacated due to the bankruptcy filing, the next hearing date for the civil case is pending, according to court documents.