Koinonia's former head arrested for theft

The former executive director of Koinonia Partners, a Christian community near Americus, Georgia, was arrested February 29 and charged with theft. An investigator said Debra Lilly stole money and property from the community during her tenure as executive director between December 1997 and May 1999.

Lilly was arrested at her home in nearby Albany, Georgia, by deputies from the Sumter County sheriff's office. Investigator Warren Campbell said deputies recovered a 1997 Chrysler LHS purchased with Koinonia funds. Lilly had converted the title to her name, he said, and had changed the vehicle's identification number in an attempt to conceal it.

According to Campbell, Lilly initially denied she did anything wrong but eventually admitted she had taken the car and other items belonging to Koinonia, including major appliances, a TV and a computer. He also said she admitted writing $23,000 in checks to herself. "She said she felt she wasn't being paid enough and wanted a reward for the hard work she was doing," Campbell added.

David Good, chairman of Koinonia's board of directors, said the board made the decision last fall to press criminal charges against Lilly after she resigned in May and it was discovered there were missing items. "We had asked Debra to return these things. That would have avoided the legal system. But she basically ignored us and denied she had done anything inappropriate," Good said. "It's very sad and quite tragic for Debra and her family. We're really sorry it happened, but at the same time we need to be good stewards. We need to be able to look people in the face who are donating money to us. So we were just doing our job as trustees."

Lilly's arrest marks another event in a recent turbulent period for Koinonia, the Christian community founded in 1942 that was the birthplace of Habitat for Humanity (sec "Koinonia's search for community" in the March 1 CENTURY). She was the third director to be dismissed since Koinonia abandoned its "common purse" and management by consensus in 1993, amid charges of racism. A spokesman for the district attorney's office stated that Lilly had made an initial appearance before a magistrate and that his office was awaiting a final investigative report before proceeding further.

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