Police: Baptist Children's Home fraud victim

The former longtime leader of a Baptist church-affiliated children’s home in Portales and a Clovis contractor are both facing criminal charges in connection with an alleged scheme that police believe allowed them to bilk the charity of over $1 million over several years.

David Randall “Randy” Rankin, 71, executive director of New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home for more than a decade, is charged with 28 felony counts of fraud, one of forgery and one of disposing of stolen property, according to records filed in Roosevelt County Magistrate Court.

Jose M. Lopez, 46, is charged with 30 felony counts of fraud, three of attempting to evade taxes and a single misdemeanor count of contracting without a license.

Police believe Rankin used the children’s home’s money to pay Lopez for contracting work and supplies on various properties belonging to the charity in Portales, Estancia and Alamogordo. But, according to arresting documents filed by the Portales Police Department, much of that work was never performed or never completed. In some instances, Lopez’s invoices appeared to match work done on properties owned by Rankin himself.

Rankin is also accused of hiding from the charity’s board members several houses that were donated to the church group, then later transferring them to his own name and doctoring board minutes to cover his tracks, court records show.

“These houses were not known to the NMBCH board members until the fraud was uncovered,” an affidavit for Rankin’s arrest reads.

The checks believed to be fraudulent add up to more than $940,000 according to a criminal complaint. That’s not including the value of the homes Rankin is accused of acquiring.

Police also note that some alleged crimes they believe were committed date back to 2015, and are already past the statute of limitations. They don’t give details about those alleged earlier incidents.

Rankin was placed on sabbatical in late 2021, and his employment ended on Jan. 21, 2022, according to a press release from the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home at the time -- the same day that police opened their investigation.

Eric Dixon, a Portales-based attorney representing Rankin, on Friday described the allegations as “nonsense.”

“They’re 100% false,” Dixon said. “... He plans to plead not guilty, because he’s not guilty of any of this.”

Neither Rankin nor Lopez could be reached for comment.

An attorney for Lopez could not be located on Friday.

Leaders from the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home did not agree to an interview, but said in a press release the organization’s board made change in the wake of Rankin’s departure, including hiring new auditors and accountants.

“The Board of Directors immediately took action to ensure financial accountability by engaging professionals to review prior activities and incorporating new finance policies and procedures including instituting separation of duties within the financial aspects of the organization,” the release said.

The organization is seeking accreditation through the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability, a standards association.

“The goal is to be an excellent steward of all The Lord has provided, ensure donor and supporter confidence, and operate at the highest standards of transparency and accountability,” the release stated.

Background

The New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home, founded as an orphanage in 1919, today also operates job skills programs, offers Christian therapy services and facilitates adoption, according to its website.

IRS records show the charity spent about $2.6 million in 2019 -- the most recent year filings were available -- and had nearly $16 million in net assets at the end of the year.

Rankin became executive director in 2011. In 2019, he was paid a salary of $66,426, as well as $6,754 in other compensation, according to IRS filings.

He was well-known in the community, participating in the Portales Rotary Club and serving two stints on the Portales Municipal Schools Board of Education. Most recently, he was appointed to a seat on the school board in 2017, then elected to the position in 2019 after running unopposed.

Rankin resigned from the school board in February 2022, following his departure from the children’s home.

Construction work allegations

Police believe Rankin first began to give Lopez work around the children’s home campus in January of 2016 after hiring him for a flooring job.

Many of the fraud allegations involving both men center around two properties that were donated to the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home -- one in Estancia, the other in Alamogordo.

The five-acre Estancia property was donated by another Baptist church in 2017 after the two organizations joined, according to court records.

That property housed two buildings, a chapel and another structure that the Baptist Children’s Home planned to convert into a residential building.

In January 2018, an apparent electrical fire damaged the property. Over the following months, police believe Rankin wrote multiple checks to Lopez for work that was either never done or never completed at the property. In some instances, invoices detailed work and supply purchases that would not have made sense at the property, records show.

In one series of checks, for example, Rankin allegedly paid Lopez more than $81,000 for work on a concrete foundation for the Estancia chapel.

“The chapel did not have a concrete foundation, and most of the work was done by volunteers,” the affidavit said.

Instead, police believe the work was performed at a Portales home that was donated to the children’s home and later allegedly transferred to Rankin’s name.

In many instances, check memos, requisition forms, invoices and receipts contradicted each other, or were missing key pieces of information, police allege.

The Alamogordo property was donated to the charity in 2018. Lopez was hired in 2020 to add several rooms onto buildings on the property, records show.

But there appeared to be a three-month gap in early 2021 where progress in Alamogordo slowed or stopped.

During that time, a cabin owned in Cloudcroft by Rankin’s wife and sister-in-law underwent a significant renovation, one affidavit reads.

“The construction materials being purchased on NMBCH Lowe’s and Home Depot accounts at the beginning of February 2021 appear to have been purchased for the Cloudcroft cabin remodel,” the report said.

Neither Rankin’s wife nor his sister-in-law are facing charges in connection with the investigation.

Properties diverted

Rankin is also accused of fraudulently acquiring three homes in and around Portales that had been donated to New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home by the estates of community members who had died.

In a wrongful termination lawsuit Rankin filed against his former employer, he alleges he made donations to the charity in exchange for the properties.

Police believe Rankin later doctored board minutes to make it appear the board had signed off on the transactions, when in fact they were never discussed, according to the affidavit.

One of those properties was eventually transferred to Lopez’s wife’s name.

She is not facing charges in connection with the transaction.

Tax evasion, real estate purchases

New Mexico Taxation and Revenue investigators found that Lopez had not submitted tax returns from 2016 to 2021, an affidavit shows.

While not all of the income appears to be linked to suspected fraud, police estimate that Lopez was paid nearly $4.5 million by the children’s home between 2016 and 2021, including more than $1.1 million in 2020.

“The checks in the beginning appeared to be smaller in nature from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand,” one document shows. “Towards the end of 2017, the checks began to increase considerably and now appeared to be over tens of thousands per check. Jose also seemed to be getting a check on a weekly basis.”

Most of those, police said, Lopez cashed rather than deposited.

Starting in 2017, police said 17 properties in Clovis were purchased using cash or cashier’s checks in the names of Lopez’s wife and his son, the affidavit shows. Lopez’s wife owns a cleaning service building while his son at the time was a Clovis police officer, the reports show. The son is no longer employed there, according to CPD.

Neither Lopez’s wife nor his son is facing charges.

Court appearances scheduled

Both Rankin and Lopez have been arrested, according to special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, who is handling the case on behalf of the Ninth Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Rankin was taken into custody in Plano, Texas. Reeb said Friday she was expecting him to be released. He is scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge in Portales on Monday.

Lopez was arrested at his home in Curry County.

A grand jury will review the evidence against both men on Friday, according to Reeb.

Meanwhile, Rankin’s wrongful termination lawsuit against the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home is ongoing.

Attorney Dixon, who is also representing Rankin in his civil suit, said, “These allegations have been well-known for almost two years and there’s nothing to them. Each of those expenditures were approved by the board, and each of those expenditures were subject to an audit. … Because the board thinks they spent too much money doesn’t make somebody guilty of fraud.”

Dixon said he’s making a motion for summary judgment in the civil case on Nov. 30, and expects to be successful.

“There’s definitely two sides to this story,” he said.