MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – A Miami Gardens pastor, Eric Readon, who has been the subject of multiple Local 10 News investigations, has lost his church property following foreclosure proceedings.
Records show Eric Readon served as both pastor and CEO of New Beginnings Missionary Baptist Church, while his wife, Lakeisha Readon, is listed as the president of the organization. Lakeisha Readon is also a teacher at Van E. Blanton Elementary School.
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The New Beginnings Missionary Baptist Church, located at 2125 NW 155th Street in Miami Gardens, was sold at auction for $569,100 after failing to keep up with mortgage payments.
Court documents reveal that the church, led by Readon, had not made a mortgage payment since July 1, 2022, resulting in a debt of $760,522.94 owed to City First Mortgage. The bank acquired the property at auction.
When asked for comment, Readon responded to Local 10 News Investigator Jeff Weinsier, saying, “Get your facts straight, buddy.” In an email statement, Readon also said, “I never realized how much power I have, wow this is impressive the media has a special interest in me man that big I feel like TD Jake’s or Joel Osteen.”
This foreclosure marks the latest in a series of controversies surrounding Readon, whose legal troubles and allegations of misconduct have been reported by Local 10 News since 2017.
Readon’s history of allegations began in 2017 when several individuals accused him of financial wrongdoing. Lorenzo Johnson claimed Readon stole a check from his daycare office, forged it, and deposited it. A court ultimately ordered Readon to pay Johnson $9,000 plus interest. In another case, a woman named Latasha Blue sued him for $3,000, claiming that he failed to deliver a car he was selling her. Despite the judgment, she reported never receiving the payment.
One of the most serious allegations came from Edward Fuller, a 70-year-old Miami resident who said that Readon manipulated him into signing over the deed to his home temporarily to secure loans. Fuller alleged that Readon later sold the house for $380,000 without informing him and provided no compensation. Fuller, who said he trusted Readon because he was a pastor, claims he was left with nothing from the sale despite Readon’s promise to return his home.
Additionally, Readon has been accused of bouncing multiple checks, including rent payments for a house he rented in Miami Lakes. Others claimed they had given him deposits for rentals, cars, or church events, only to face resistance when asking for refunds. One individual alleged that Readon threatened their job when they tried to recoup their money.
Readon filed a $50 million lawsuit against WPLG INC., claiming our reporting had damaged his reputation.
Readon lost the case.
The Third District Court of Appeal upheld the ruling against him, ordering Readon and his attorneys to pay over $73,000 in attorney fees and court costs to WPLG INC.
In 2022, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office filed charges against him, including organized fraud, exploitation of the elderly, and grand theft for defrauding Fuller.
“Elderly exploitation so often is a complex shell-game depending on great trust being quietly transformed into financial deception via a movement of signed contracts, deeds and paperwork,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle at the time of Readon’s arrest.
That case is still going through the court system.