Parsippany Pastor Sues Bank, Police For Arrest After Photo Mix-Up

PARSIPPANY, NJ — A Parsippany pastor is suing Wells Fargo and New Jersey State Police, after he says an ATM photograph mix-up ended in his arrest.

Rev. Jeffrey Edwards, who serves at the United Methodist Church of Parsippany, was arrested last September after a photo of him depositing a check at the Parsippany Wells Fargo went viral on the New Jersey State Police Facebook page. The problem? Edwards had deposited his checks legally, and wasn't connected to the scam, the lawsuit says.

"Wells Fargo, one of the biggest banks in the country, never seems to miss an opportunity to harm its customers. This is just the latest, and one of the most egregious, examples," attorney Gerry Krovatin, who is representing Edwards, said in a statement sent to Patch.

Edwards says he has been a regular customer at the Parsippany Wells Fargo for at least 10 years, and does both personal and church banking at that branch.

"The carelessness of both Wells Fargo and the State Police is kind of appalling, and I wonder what happens to somebody who might not have the resources to defend themselves," Edwards told NJ.com. State Police and Wells Fargo both declined to comment to the website.

Edwards is suing Wells Fargo and the State Police for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, malicious prosecution, false arrest, aiding and abetting, respondent superior, and negligent inflection of emotional distress. He is asking for compensatory, consequential, and punitive damages, and legal costs and fees.

According to the lawsuit, four fraudulent checks were deposited at the Route 46 Wells Fargo ATM in April 2018, into the bank account of a woman named Tyler Mathis; another check was deposited the next day in Glen Ridge. The next month, State Police subpoenaed Wells Fargo and asked for any photographs related to the fraudulent checks; Wells Fargo gave police a still photo of Edwards, the suit says.

Two weeks after Wells Fargo handed over Edward's photo, State Police interviews Mathis about the checks. The suit alleges that Mathis admitted to it, and said a "dark skinned black male" she identified as "Cousin Swing" was the person who deposited the checks.

Following the interview, State Police published a Facebook post with Edward's photos, asking the community for help identifying him as a suspect in the check scam (the original text of the State Police's Facebook post remains online, but Edward's photographs were removed two days after the post went live). Mathis was not charged, and State Police said she was a victim of a check fraud scam, the suit alleges.

Edwards reached out to police a few days later, after a parishioner alerted him to the Facebook post. Edwards sent police his bank records, "which showed no fraudulent conduct of any kind," the suit says.

Police followed up with Wells Fargo after Edwards' emailed them, and a bank employee said they couldn't automatically connect photographs with check numbers, but offered to hand write the check numbers on the photos, the suit says. Only July 19, 2018, the bank gave police the same photos of Edwards, this time with the fraudulent check numbers written on the bottom, but said they couldn't confirm one of the checks, the suit said.

Two weeks later, State Police received a photo of the person the bank said deposited the fifth check in Glen Ridge: an African-American man, the suit says.

Again, State Police subpoenaed Wells Fargo, this time asking for banking information related to the checks Edwards deposited, the suit says; Wells Fargo refused those subpoenas. At this point, Edwards asked for an apology from Wells Fargo, but did not receive one.

State Police asked Edwards to give a statement at the Holmdel station on Aug. 23, 2018. Shortly after he gave a statement denying any criminal involvement, Edwards was arrested and charged with third degree forgery in connection to the forged checks.

That charge was dismissed in January 2019.