A lot of people do crazy things for love and this was evident for a woman in New Jersey. According to NBC 10, Taisha D. Smith-DeJoseph, 43, was arrested at her home and charged on February 11 with deception, computer criminal activity, misapplication of entrusted property, and more. This was for embezzling over $561,000 from the church she volunteered at to pay for her wedding.
St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Florence Township is where Smith-DeJoseph was supposedly being a good humanitarian before robbing them. She helped run the finances of the church. She was allegedly pocketing this money from 2014-March 2019.
Electronic accounts were opened for the church and then the $561k was taken for personal use by DeJoseph. In addition to the accounts, investigators said a payroll was created where she supplied reimbursement checks to herself from St. Paul’s accounts. Monthly statements were fabricated to hide the church’s actual funds. The way she hid the embezzling done by her was not filing income taxes from 2014-2018.
In addition to the wedding being paid for, Smith-DeJoseph also paid for her car loans, credit card expenses, satellite television, cell phone bills, and rent. The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office originally launched this investigation after a church member was suspicious of Smith-DeJoseph.
At the moment, it’s unknown if Smith-DeJoseph is eligible for bail and when she will stand trial. She may face a long prison sentence though. Embezzlement is taken very seriously by the feds. Flip the page for NBC 10 news video of the case.