The Rev. Delman Coates, senior pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Maryland, has sued the estate of a Rhode Island attorney and others, alleging he was defrauded of millions of dollars in a real estate lending scheme.
When asked about the lawsuit on Tuesday, Mt. Ennon Baptist Church directed questions to Coates’ attorney, while noting that it “is a personal matter for Dr. Coates. Mt. Ennon Baptist Church is not involved in this matter in any way.”
In his 18-count, 24-page lawsuit filed last month in Kent County Superior Court, Coates accuses the late Rhode Island attorney, Ronald W. Dunbar Jr., and other defendants of a slew of crimes.
“This is an action to recover the fruits of a lending fraud designed and operated by an attorney. Between December 2024 and April 2025, Plaintiff Delman Coates advanced no less than $2,850,000 in loans that Attorney Ronald W. Dunbar, Jr. proposed, structured, drafted, personally guaranteed, and serviced through his law firm’s client trust account,” Coates’ attorneys argued.
“On November 14, 2025, Attorney Dunbar computed in writing that he owed Plaintiff $4,442,877.18. On April 10, 2026, he promised in writing that if sued he would assert no defenses and would agree to immediate judgment for the full amount owed. He paid only $400,000 of it, in three unallocated wires in 2026, and he died on July 28, 2026.”
In addition to Dunbar’s estate, Coates’ lawsuit also names as defendants real estate development and property holding company Five Five Plus, LLC, Dunbar Law PC, Joseph Riley, Jennifer Riley, Jeffry Pike and Brian Tischler.
The lawsuit states that Coates was introduced to Dunbar in 2024 by Massachusetts developer Richard Egan, who vouched for the late attorney and stated that he was seeking bridge funding for a personal injury client.
That introduction led to a lending relationship between the pastor and Dunbar, who completed several bridge loans with terms set by the attorney. Because these early loans were repaid in full along with incurred fees, Coates developed trust in Dunbar and was induced to invest in construction loans for the attorney’s real estate business, including the Orchard Condominium in West Warwick, Rhode Island. This is where the relationship between the pastor and the attorney began to fall apart.
“Plaintiff’s construction loans to Defendant Five Five Plus, LLC were induced by written recitals describing a 139-unit condominium development with 72 to 74 units built and sold. The recorded Declaration of Condominium caps the development at 108 units; the Town of West Warwick Planning Board approved 107; only 43 units had been declared when Plaintiff lent; and the completed project comprises 53 units, of which 49 have been sold for approximately $6.6 million in proceeds that were diverted while Plaintiff went unpaid,” the lawsuit states.
Coates alleges he entered into construction loan agreements with Dunbar that were secured by real estate, but he never received a mortgage, promissory note, or financing statement. When it came time to repay the loans, however, Dunbar started delaying the payments.
“From September 2025 forward, Attorney Dunbar lulled Plaintiff with written representations that personal injury settlements had been paid and deposited, and that the entire development was under a signed $8,575,000 purchase and sale agreement whose closing would pay Plaintiff in full,” Coates’ attorneys argue.
“No such closing occurred; no trace of the transaction appears in the land evidence records; and the public filings of the purported buyer entity identify no such buyer principal.”
Dunbar later executed a written agreement providing that if agreed-upon payments were not made by Dec. 10, 2025, 100% ownership of the West Warwick development would be transferred to Coates.
The pastor contends that only about $400,000 has been paid to date and no transfer of ownership of the property was made.
Coates is now asking the court to award him money damages, restitution, imposition of the promised security by equitable mortgage, and other remedies including the transfer of ownership of the four units in the West Warwick development that currently remain in Five Five’s name.
Local media reports suggest at least nine other people have alleged that Dunbar scammed them in similar real estate schemes totaling about $9 million.
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