The L.A. Times and other sources report that the Rev. E. Joshua Sims, who leads Compton's Double Rock Baptist congregation, has been arrested on embezzlement charges. Not only is Sims accused of channeling $800,000 of church funds toward his personal use, but, according to the Compton Bulletin, he freely admitted to parishioners a year ago that he used church money to finance an extravagant lifestyle, and that more than $1 million was missing from Double Rock's treasury. According to the L.A. District Attorney's office, Sims will be charged today “with one felony count each of grand theft by embezzlement, dissuading a witness and money laundering” for crimes allegedly committed between 2000 and 2008.

The Compton  Bulletin reported that at Sims' Inland Empire home, valued at “$750,000, detectives found a cedar-planked indoor swimming pool; a

61-inch plasma television in the living room and smaller flat screen

TVs in every other room of the house, including the bathroom; hundreds

of tailored and Italian suits; and more than 60 pairs of designer

alligator-skin and sports shoes. Sims also used the money to purchase a

$100,000-plus Mercedes-Benz luxury sports car.”

Today black lesbian blogger Jasmyne Cannick mocked Sims by awarding him her site's Negro Please Award.

“[L]et's hear it for the good Revered Sims who stole money from his own people to ride around in a fly car and live in a fly house out in Corona,” Cannick wrote. “This is exactly the behavior that keeps Jasmyne out of church-and might I add, continues to give Black pastors a bad rep-will this and their hypocrisy when it comes to issues like Proposition 8.”

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