The Rev. Acen Phillips delivered powerful eulogies.

Phillips once spoke close to an hour at the funeral of a fellow minister from Oklahoma, calling his friend a "brother" and "family."

At a funeral in Colorado, the preacher showed up unannounced and delivered what the grieving mother described as a "memorable" speech.

In both cases, Phillips also did something the families thought odd: He talked about life insurance.

The families never gave it another thought until Attorney General John Suthers' office started asking questions about their loved ones' life insurance policies.

Some families now believe Phillips swindled them out of money by falsifying and lying about those policies.

Gail Sights, the stepdaughter of the Oklahoma minister Phillips eulogized, has nothing good to say about the former family friend.

"I don't think the justice system can even give him what he deserves," she said.

Here are the stories behind three of the life insurance policies named in the complaint against Phillips.

Ryuichi Brumley, 24

A refugee from Laos, Lady Joy Brumley was devoted to helping minorities in the Aurora community where she worked as a US Bank branch manager.

She met Phillips in 2004 when he applied for a loan to buy life insurance for members of his nonprofit organization and several of his churches.

"When I first met him, it seemed he wanted to do good," Brumley said.

Although US Bank declined to underwrite the policy, Brumley and her husband, international businessman Sir Jerry Brumley, befriended the pastor. Joy Brumley attended several services.

When tragedy hit less than a year later, Phillips was there to comfort the couple. On July 24, 2005, the Brumleys' 24-year-old son, Ryuichi Harold Brumley, was killed in an accident.

Brumley said Phillips later told her that her son was covered by a life insurance policy valued at about $100,000.

"He said the family would get 80 percent and the church would get 20. That's all I knew," she said.

When insurance payments were made, the Brumleys received approximately $80,000. But Phillips' churches received more than $120,000. Court records allege that Phillips failed to tell the Brumleys that fatal automobile accidents paid double the insured amount.

"If he would have told us, we would have been fine about it," Brumley said. "We didn't need the money."

James Gary Edson

Edson, 55, once told his sister that she was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy.

But Rose Marie Chadwick never got a penny.

The Denver woman did get a call from an insurance company asking questions.

Chadwick learned this spring from an investigator that the beneficiaries were church groups and associates of Phillips, but that the claim had not been paid yet. She says the signature on the policy was not her brother's.

Chadwick never met Phillips but her brother was active in the church. Chadwick said it appears that Phillips took advantage of those he served.

"But I don't want to judge this man. I don't want to bash him," she said. "What was done is done. We all got to stand before God, and he'll (Phillips) have to stand before Him one day."

The Rev. Kenneth Davis

Gail Sights has plenty of thoughts about Phillips, but the minister's stepdaughter is reluctant to share them.

"You won't be able to print them, they're so bad," Sights said.

Davis preached in Oklahoma but was good friends with Phillips. So when Davis died in a car accident in 2005, his family asked Phillips to deliver the eulogy for the 76-year-old.

Sights, who lives in Texas, said Phillips handled the paperwork on Davis' life insurance policy for her mother, DeNoah Davis. Phillips, she says, told her that her mother would get 80 percent of his $50,000 policy, which she got later that year. But the family later discovered that his policy was actually worth $120,000.

"When the documents were faxed to me, my mouth dropped to the ground," Sights said.

bartels@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5327

Back to Top