Shifflett to be sentenced today

By Nate Delesline III

Published: October 7, 2008

A Culpeper clergyman will learn his fate today after pleading guilty in June to felony financial charges.

The Rev. Charles V. Shifflett, 57, could face more than 300 years in prison and $52,500 in fines for obtaining money by false pretenses, tax fraud and filing false workman’s compensation claims.

His sentencing is set for 9:30 a.m. in Culpeper County Circuit Court.

Shifflett had faced 51 charges, but 30 were indefinitely suspended. Twenty more charges against his wife, Janice, were dismissed.

According to prosecutors, the case stems from an investigation by the Virginia State Police and the Virginia Department of Taxation regarding incidents that occurred between 2001 and 2006.

At a February hearing, the prosecution told the court that in March 2002, Shifflett directed a bookkeeper at his former church, Calvary Baptist, to pay his wife a housing allowance of $250 a week.

Prosecutors say that request came at almost the same time Shifflett’s $600-a-week salary was reduced to $250 because he was receiving workman’s compensation.

Also during that time, prosecutors say, Shifflett obtained money by false pretenses from two insurance companies.

At the June hearing, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Dale Durrer and defense attorney Charles Bowman agreed that the plea was in everyone’s best interest.

Shifflett was set for a jury trial in July; however, Durrer said the commonwealth would have likely needed to summon about 30 witnesses from Wisconsin, Indiana and Maine.

Shifflett, who now pastors First Baptist Church of Culpeper, has been in and out of the legal system over the past three years.

In December 2006, he was convicted of one felony for cruelty to children and six misdemeanors of assault and battery against children who attended Calvary Baptist in the 1980s and ’90s.

He was sentenced to 700 hours of community service.

Nate Delesline III can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or .