A Hartford City Council member faces larceny and money laundering charges after allegedly taking funds from a local church where he worked.
Hartford police said Alex Thomas turned himself in Tuesday after a warrant for his arrest was issued in superior court. Thomas, 27, was released on bond and is scheduled to be arraigned later this month.
Thomas was previously an associate pastor at South Church, where he served as director of family ministry. Hartford police said they received a complaint from the church on June 4 alleging embezzlement of funds between April 2023 and April 2024.
Police said their investigation found Thomas allegedly misused a church credit card to direct funds to a shell company, then to his personal accounts. He faces charges of second degree larceny and second degree money laundering.
Thomas directed questions about the case Wednesday to his lawyer, Ron Johnson. Johnson declined comment because he said Thomas is still waiting to review the allegations.
"All I can say is that he turned himself in readily and we’ll be in court on Oct. 29," Johnson said, referring to a scheduled arraignment date.
Thomas, a Hartford native, was sworn into office for his first term on the Hartford City Council in January as a member of the Working Families Party.
According to a biography on his campaign website, Thomas grew up in Hartford’s North End, attended local public schools and was active in Hartford City Mission, the Hartford Artists Collective and the Wilson-Gray YMCA.
The biography indicates he is the first Black pastor of South Church, an independent Congregational church that traces its history in Hartford back more than 350 years.
Officials at South Church told Connecticut Public previously they removed Thomas from his position after they became aware of charges made to a church credit card, then filed a police report.
Rev. Adam Thomas Söderberg said at the time that Thomas led the church’s youth programs for two years. In that role, Söderberg said, Thomas led group activities for more than a dozen Hartford youth on Friday nights — an idea that Söderberg said Thomas generated to help give teenagers a safe and positive environment to spend time after school.
“Kids loved him,” Söderberg said, adding: “They don’t know how to completely process it, how two things can be true, because he was such an important, positive part of the last two years of their lives.”
Söderberg said church staff first raised questions about expenditures last year after Thomas reported exceeding the budget for his programs. More troubling signs emerged this year when staff saw a lack of receipts and supporting documentation for some expenses, Söderberg said. The church investigated and discovered unexplained payments to a pair of companies totaling nearly $15,000, Söderberg said.
"When I confronted him, he offered no explanation at all," Söderberg said. "He was just completely silent. So I let him go."
The church received further assistance from PayPal to research the payments and discovered they went to entities linked to Thomas, Söderberg said. He said the church felt obligated to contact police to safeguard its own resources, and also because of the office Thomas holds as a public official.
"We love the city," he said. "South Church has been serving the city for 354 years, and we felt a little protective of Hartford as well."
In a written statement issued Wednesday, Hartford City Council President Shirley Surgeon said it's incumbent on members of the council "to uphold the values and trust placed in us" by residents.
"There’s an appropriate legal process in place, and I trust our local law enforcement to see that process through" Surgeon said. "In the meantime, the City Council remains focused on serving the residents of Hartford."
