A man who believed his donation of $150,000 to the founder of an Shawnee, Kan. Christian school would help kids has filed a lawsuit to get his money back after the founder was arrested for unlawful touching of underage children. The new school was never built.
As reported last August, Dennis Creason, 48, the co-founder of the Oaklawn Christian School in Shawnee, was charged in Johnson County District Court with nine counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child between January 2015 and August 2018.
According to a recent report, Joseph Layne filed a lawsuit against Oaklawn Christian School, Creason, and his wife who are the founders of the school, in a bid to get back his donation.
It was noted that Layne was a member of an unnamed church when Dennis Creason asked him in June 2017 to donate money to help construct a new building for the school. Layne agreed to help and donated $150,000.
Information shared online said Creason and his wife started the school in their home while they were members of Life Mission Church, a megachurch in Olathe, Kansas, where Creason and his wife are reported as founding members.
When reached by phone Wednesday, Marlene Abbey, operations director at Life Mission, said she was unable to confirm Creason’s relationship with the church. Another employee who did not give her name said the Creasons had attended the church “in the beginning” but she could not recall the last time that she saw the couple. She also said Life Church had no affiliation with the school and described it as a private venture of the Creasons.
In March 2018, Creason reportedly told members of the unidentified church that the school spent $75,000 of the donation to purchase lumber for the new building. Layne alleges in the lawsuit that no lumber was delivered.
