Sutter Says:
That he was called into the ministry in 1985:
"I received my "Calling" to ministry around 1985 or so, and since I was Catholic, I started off in my local church (St. Luke’s) as a Commentator and Lector, then received training and certification as a Eucharistic Minister. At that point I volunteered in various ministries, as a lay minister at the Aristocrat Nursing Home, Lakewood Hospital and an adult day-care program at Fairview Hospital. I knew that God wanted me to do more..."
(source Sutter's "Just the Facts" blog has since been removed. Fortunately, we saved a snapshot)
The Truth:
Sutter apparently thought that by 'wanting
him to do more,' God was speaking of felony credit card fraud, since he served
three months in a Federal prison after being convicted of stealing from Sears,
American Express and Fleet Bank Mastercard.
This was a 6th Circuit Court matter,
Northern District of Ohio. Case Number 1:94-cr-00010-SHB, US v. James M. Sutter.
The case was filed January 6, 1994. There were three charges, two of which were
"Unauthorized Use of Access Devices" 18 USC Section 1029(a)(2), and one charge
of "Making False Statements" 18 USC Section 1001.
Sutter was sentenced to FMC Lexington, (Kentucky) Jan 8, 1996, and was ordered
to surrender to BOP by reporting to FMC, Lexington, KY. He did not surrender to
BOP as ordered, and a warrant for his arrest was issued. Judge Sam H. Bell
gave Sutter a break, and again ordered him to surrender himself, but again he
ignored the order. Sutter was finally arrested on 1/18/96, and delivered
to FMC, Lexington, where he stayed for three months.
Two years later, Sutter claimed that he had cancer when he went to prison and then a major heart attack during his third week behind bars (this would be the third heart attack that he claimed for himself over a seven month period):
For two years before I went to prison, I was on hgih (real high, like 300 mg/day) doses of morphine to deal with the pain from cancer. When I reported to the prison hospital (where I did my whole stay), I was told I could not have it anymore, and for the entire time there I received not a single pill for pain. What I did receive was three weeks of horrible withdrawal, seizures, roller coaster blood pressure, and some rather nasty stuff, all of which resulted in a major heart attack near the end of the third week
(source)
Less than four years after he was released from prison, Sutter uploaded a resume to MinistryCareers.com, in which he claimed that he was an "Associate Pastor" of Doers of the Word Baptist Fellowship during the time in his life when he was actually engaging in criminal activity. (source, image)
