PARSIPPANY — The Rev. Jeffrey Edwards has passed a bizarre test of faith over the past year that could have pushed him from pulpit to prison.

The worst part of the "terrifying" ordeal may be over, but the 30-year pastor of Parsippany Methodist Church won't rest until the New Jersey State Police and his own bank are held accountable for falsely branding him a criminal.

Edwards, 63, filed a civil suit last week in Morristown Superior Court, accusing Wells Fargo Bank of negligently identifying him as the suspect in a check-fraud scheme perpetrated April 16, 2018 at an ATM located at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Parsippany.

"If this could happen to me, it could happen to anybody," Edwards said Wednesday. "It could happen to somebody who doesn't have the resources, or already has a criminal record that could be held over them. I have never been arrested before. Anyone else could be railroaded with something like this. And who's being held accountable?"

Also named in the suit are the New Jersey State Police and two detectives who worked on the case.

New Jersey State Police spokesperson Lt. Theodore Schafer said the department could not comment on ongoing litigation. Wells Fargo did not respond to a request for comment.

Edwards says he can forgive the individuals "who screwed up," but cannot look past "the kind of systems at work here, at Wells Fargo and the state police, that allowed this to happen. The systems need to be held accountable."

His nightmare began April 16, when Wells Fargo notified state police that four fraudulent checks had been deposited through an ATM in its Parsippany branch at Troy Hills Plaza.

Around the same time as those checks were deposited, Edwards used the same ATM to deposit personal checks in his own account at the branch.

According to the lawsuit, the bank incorrectly connected the photos of Edwards to the fraudulent checks, which allegedly had been forged from legitimate New Jersey Turnpike Authority checks and totaled more than $6,000.

Facebook photo

State police investigators, Edwards says, then magnified the mistake July 9 by posting a public Facebook alert about the crime, including surveillance photos of Edwards that identified him as the suspect.

Soon after, a parishioner showed Edwards the post, noting the criminal's likeness to her pastor.

"She texted me and said you have a twin," he said. "At first glance, I thought that's weird that someone looks so much like me. Then I read underneath that it is actually my bank. She sent me a picture of the posting and it said it had been shared 466 times. This was less than 24 hours after it was put online."

Edwards quickly contacted the state police detectives on the case, told them who he was and sent them documentation of his legitimate transaction.

"It was disturbing immediately, precisely knowing that in short order, a lot of people in Parsippany are going to see this," he said. "And people who don't know me are going to come to the conclusion I am a criminal. It was horrifying. My reputation as somebody trustworthy is at the heart of what it is to be a pastor."

But when the detectives checked back with the Wells Fargo research team, it confirmed their internal connection of Edwards' photos to the fraudulent checks, the lawsuit states.

When asked for specific documentation connecting the checks to the face, detectives were told the bank's technology was unable to electronically verify the connection. Instead, the detectives accepted documents with the check numbers hand-written onto the photos, the lawsuit alleges.

Detectives finally summoned Edwards on Sept. 5 to a meeting at state police headquarters in Holmdel, where he hoped to finally clear up the matter. Instead, he was shown the documents and was told, "Who do you think the jury will believe, a bank security expert or you?" Edwards recalled.

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The pastor was arrested, booked, fingerprinted and charged with a third-degree felony, punishable by three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.

"I did not even have a lawyer at this point because I didn't think I needed one," he said. "Afterwards, everyone told me that was a big mistake. I naively went down there thinking I had nothing to hide, and I had been absolutely forthright with everything."

What baffles Edwards is knowing the investigators were ignoring what he considered to be an overwhelming amount of evidence proving his innocence.

In addition to the documentation he provided of his own deposit, by that point, investigators were already aware of a related fraudulent check deposit made at a Wells Fargo branch in Glen Ridge, the lawsuit states. That check, also from the Turnpike authority, was made out to a woman named Tyler Mathis, as were the fake checks deposited in Parsippany.

According to the lawsuit, Mathis confessed to her role in the crimes, identifying her co-conspirator as a “dark-skinned black male” allegedly known to her only as “Cousin Swing.” Mathis admitted on July 9, that “Cousin Swing” told her “he would … deposit checks into [her] account and once they clear, [Swing and Mathis] would split the money.”

A Wells Fargo security photo of the Glen Ridge transaction, the lawsuit states, shows a "dark-skinned male," and a check with an endorsement signature matching the Parsippany checks.

Police told Mathis she was a “victim of a check fraud scam," according to the lawsuit.

January dismissal

Edwards was required to make three court appearances in Woodbridge Municipal Court, where the Turnpike Authority offices are located, before the judge finally dismissed the case for lack of evidence on Jan. 16.

Months later, Edwards' voice still shakes when he recalls the details, which he shared with his small congregation Sunday after reports of the incident surfaced in public.

"What really concerns me the most is that I am a pretty blessed and privileged person," Edwards said. "I have resources to hire a competent lawyer. I am blessed by the grace of God to have a pretty impeccable reputation. But this can happen to anyone"

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William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@Dailyrecord.com