Tag Archives: Judge Tommy Davis

Fenner Case: Defendants and Attorneys Appear, Bartley Arrested

July 6, 2016 Admin 1 Comment

Rccatalyst.com reported on June 29th, ADA Garland Byers called the Fenner case with Judge Tommy Davis on the bench. District Attorney Ted Bell stated previously that this hearing was for the defendant’s attorneys to make an official appearance on the record. Judge Davis notified all that the stay on the case was lifted. Three defendants already had counsel. This hearing was for Brooke Covington’s and Justin Covington’s counsel to be made public.

Last week, I was in Dallas, TX for a conference and unable to attend the hearing. From the article, the attorneys listed:

Sarah Covington Anderson- represented by the Cooper firm

Robert Lewis Walker, Jr. – represented by Matthew Cabe

Adam Bartley- represented by Robert Denton. Bartley was late and Judge Davis left his case open until he arrived.

Daniel Talbert – standing in for David Teddy, who will be representing Brooke Covington.

Justin Covington asked for a court appointed attorney and was appointed Krinn Evans.

Yes, folks. You just read that. From what I have heard, Brooke Covington dropped a pretty dime for the services of David Teddy. He comes with a reputation that precedes him. Justin- not so much. He had to reverse his course after refusing public counsel last year. After the Disqualification ORDER from last August and no access to the resources which Brooke apparently used, he is left with a public defender. Krinn Evans will do Justin a quality job, no doubt. He is a criminal defense attorney with an office in Marion, NC.
Continue reading Fenner Case: Defendants and Attorneys Appear, Bartley Arrested →

Uncategorized, WOFF Updates

Walker, Anderson vs. Jerry Cooper (f/k/a Jerry Butcher) – Case Dismissed

December 23, 2015 Admin Leave a comment

In Rutherford County Superior Court, on December 21, 2015 at 11:47AM, concerning file number 15 CVS 32; an order for dismissal with prejudice was entered by Judge Tommy Davis. My understanding is the decision can be appealed, but the exact same allegations cannot be pursued against Mr. Cooper in the future by these plaintiffs. Judge Davis offered the opinion of the Court that there was “no genuine issue of material fact.” This opinion came just four days after a session last Thursday in which Judge Davis offered several pointed questions toward Mr. Josh Farmer, attorney for the plaintiffs.

Rccatalyst.com posted news of the dismissal on Tuesday. In this article, Judge Davis is quoted from Thursday’s hearing as saying to Josh Farmer, “Why are you picking on this individual? Do you have a grudge against him?” Also, Judge Davis asked why Farmer was not suing the other involved parties such as the AP or the reporter, Mitch Weiss who wrote the article upon which Mr. Cooper commented with the statement-“True story.” Mr. Farmer said his clients still may have recourse against other parties. In brief, this lawsuit alleges damages from Jerry Cooper posting the comment “True story” in relation to an AP article stating the facts surrounding the Matthew Fenner criminal case. The Fenner case has five defendants from Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) facing charges including second degree kidnapping, assault. In addition, Sarah Anderson also faces a charge of assault by strangulation. These charges stem from incidents on January 27, 2013 in the sanctuary of WOFF.
Continue reading Walker, Anderson vs. Jerry Cooper (f/k/a Jerry Butcher) – Case Dismissed →

Uncategorized, WOFF Updates

Update: Robert Lewis Walker, Jr., Sarah Anderson vs. Jerry Cooper

December 18, 2015 Admin 1 Comment

Thursday, December 17th; in Rutherford County Superior court, another drama played out surrounding Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) members- past and present. In review, the case involved a civil suit from present members Robert Lewis Walker, Jr and Sarah Anderson against former member, Jerry Cooper. Learning from verbal arguments, the suit alleges the Facebook comment Jerry Cooper posted- “True story” in response to a WRAL.com/AP article about the Matthew Fenner allegations has reportedly caused financial damages and constituted libel. Robert Lewis Walker, Jr. was said to have lost his job and suffered hardship over the indictments and according to attorney Josh Farmer- Cooper’s comment. Sarah Anderson is alleging the same and the (so far, undocumented) damages total $100,000.

The previous session involving this case was reviewed in a post… here. In that session, the subpoena of Matthew Fenner’s phone/voice/data records was quashed. However, there is an effort in Florida to depose former WOFF member, Danielle Cordez, in relation to this case. The effort is being aggressively contested and the outcome is yet known. Since the last court session, Matthew Fenner was also subpoenaed for a deposition December 30th in the Jerry Cooper case. As attorney Paul Ditz pointed out last time, any effort to access records of Fenner (and now a deposition of Matthew Fenner) is a back door effort to gain information involving the criminal case which names not only Robert Lewis Walker, Jr, Sarah Anderson as defendants, but also, Brooke Covington, Justin Covington and Adam Bartley. The case referenced as State vs. Covington is presently in review in the North Carolina Court of Appeals over pre-trial motions to disqualify Joshua Farmer, Mark Morris and any of their associates from representing any of the five defendants in the case.

Today, attorney Ditz led off summarizing the allegations and giving a definition of “libel.” He provided two cases which he believed addressed the issue at hand. He ended his first argument declaring Cooper comment “true story” did not meet the test of libel and thus, he moved to quash the case as baseless.
Continue reading Update: Robert Lewis Walker, Jr., Sarah Anderson vs. Jerry Cooper →

Uncategorized, WOFF Updates

Judge Tommy Davis- Who is Matthew Fenner?

October 11, 2015 Admin Leave a comment

Thursday, October 8, 2015, in Rutherford County Superior Court there was a hearing held in the civil case brought by Robert Lewis Walker Jr. and Sarah Covington Anderson against Jerry Cooper Rccatalyst.com wrote about the case here when telling about the arrest of Jerry Cooper in the criminal case brought by Jane Whaley which was dismissed on May 29th. Mediation in the civil case did not bring a solution. The civil case surrounds Jerry Cooper’s Facebook posting commenting on the WRAL story of Matthew Fenner’s story of the events of from January 27, 2013. The issues in front of the court Thursday included a subpoena of the phone records of Danielle Cordez and Matthew Fenner.

One of the obvious differences on Thursday was the absence of any other WOFF members except Mark Morris, Hannah Davies and one other young WOFF member sitting in the attorney area. Mark Morris spoke as the lead attorney for Walker and Covington. Attorney Paul Ditz represented Jerry Cooper in this case.

About 2:12PM, Mark Morris leads off the session. The issues discussed included the requirements to obtain phone records from Ms. Cordez in Florida. In the end, this issue was not concluded as Judge Davis required more information from the attorneys. The process for an out of state party to obtain private records from a Florida resident is more involved than in North Carolina.

In the session, the definitions of libel and defamation were reviewed and rules quoted. During the discussion of the subpoena of Matthew Fenner’s records, Judge Davis asked, “Who Is Matthew Fenner?” In retrospect, the question did not mean, “I don’t know about Matthew Fenner.” I believe this was a way to get information into the court records about Mr. Fenner and related matters. Judge Davis presided over the initial hearings in the Fenner case as reported by Rccatatlyst.com.
Continue reading Judge Tommy Davis- Who is Matthew Fenner? →