Tag Archives: Word of Faith Fellowship

Summary of Events in Matthew Fenner Case as of Sept. 18, 2015 (court docs)

Court ROom #2
Court Room #2

This week brought more motions and notices in the Matthew Fenner case.

September 15th- Rccatalyst.com reported Attorney Beeker withdraws from Fenner Case. They also reported Ms. Beeker filed a continuance for the three defendants, Brooke Covington, Justin Covington and Sarah Anderson for more time for them to find counsel. Beeker included Robert Lewis Walker, Jr. in the list of defendants. Walker’s attorney of record, Matthew Cabe, did not sign the motion. Could this just be sloppy paperwork? It is not clear how this will be treated during Monday’s session.

On the same day, the disqualified Josh Farmer filed a Petition for Writ of Supersedeas and Motion for Temporary Stay on behalf of Brooke M. Covington, Justin B. Covington and Sarah C. Anderson in the North Carolina Court of Appeals (19 pages). Mr. Farmer along with Mark Morris also filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari (157 pages). The review of these documents is too long for this post. We will look at them in an upcoming post. There is a lot of feedback to offer about what was put in and what was left out of these documents. There is a docket entry for the filings, the fee has not been paid and it is unclear whether the Court will review and act on these filings.

September 18th, a motion from Adam Bartley’s attorney Robert Denton arrived in the mail and the clerk’s time stamped it into the records. We review this Motion to Continue All Motions below. Also, just before 5:00PM, Assistant District Attorney Garland Byers filed a response to Denton’s Motion. I do not have a copy, but will review it in a later post. For now, it is enough to look at Denton’s Motion.
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More Appeals Filed in Fenner Case (Court docs)

At the very end of the fourteen day period allowed for filing an appeal, Brooke M. Covington, Justin B. Covington and Sarah C. Anderson each filed appeals this past Thursday, during the last half hour that the court was open. Each defendant filed two notices. One notice was appealing Judge Pope’s order “entered August 27, 2015 granting the State’s motion to dismiss the notice of appeal filed by (each) defendant on August 20, 2015.” The second notice was to appeal the order of Judge Pope “entered August 27, 2015 denying defendant’s motion to reconsider order disqualifying counsel.” (Use BACK ARROW to retunr to this post)
Brooke Covington appeals
Justin Covington appeals
Sarah Covington Anderson appeals

Questions pop up all over the place from these notices. Who helped prepare them? What is the goal for these filings? What is the purpose of filing without representation? Rule 4 of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure is used to justify these appeals. A layman’s reading does suggest that the defendant’s CAN file these appeals, but should they? How will Judge Pope view them in light of his most recent Order which contain these words pertaining to the Motion to Reconsider;

“After a review of the Court file, review of the State’s and the Defendant’s Memorandum, case law, consideration of legal arguments by counsel for the State and the Defendants, it is HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED AS FOLLOWS: The Defendant’s Motion to Reconsider the Order of August 6, 2015 filed by the Defendants on August 20, 2015 be and is hereby DENIED. “
Continue reading More Appeals Filed in Fenner Case (Court docs)

Summary of Events for Week of 9/4/2015 (Court docs)

This past week included disclosure of documents outlining several events in the Matthew Fenner case. As a review, five defendants from the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) were indicted earlier this year on several charges including felony assault and second degree kidnapping stemming from events on January 27, 2013. The five defendants include Brooke M. Covington, Justin B. Covington, Sarah Covington Anderson, Robert Lewis Walker, Jr. and Adam Bartley.

Pre-trial events have included a show stopping disqualification of Joshua Farmer, Mark Morris, Andrea Farmer of Tomblin, Farmer & Morris (TFM) and their associates from representing any of the five defendants. Judge Marvin Pope issued the order on August 6th and also confirmed his Order after a hearing on August 27th. During the August 27th session, attorney Angela Beeker argued the case against disqualification on behalf of TFM. This disqualification came into focus after TFM refused to present Adam Bartley with a plea deal offered by Assistant District Attorney, Garland Byers. In a hand written refusal of the plea, Bartley said, “…I did nothing wrong.” Adam Bartley and Robert L. Walker, Jr, each have secured separate counsel from TFM. Mr. Bartley’s attorney is Robert Denton and Robert Walker’s attorney is Matthew Cabe. Both of these attorneys have their office in Morganton.

This is where we pick up our summary of this week. In court documents, a letter dated August 25th from Bartley’s counsel,in response to the previously reported Motion to Revoke Bond, Robert Denton included these words in regards to the Motion for his client,

“I am saddened to receive the same (motion) and had hoped to have a more professional relationship with you…Do you really intend to tell the Judge that it is a coincidence that approximately a week after he turned your plea down that you decided to file a motion to revoke his bond?… You may want to consult the Rules of Professional Conduct on a prosecutor abusing his calendaring authority for these types of shenanigans. …As you know I do not even have discovery in the case… It seems to me that you are taking this case very personally… I would request you withdraw your motion and we discuss your concerns over the phone…If these are the types of games you play… Perhaps you should recuse yourself from this case?”
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Denton letter to Byers
Continue reading Summary of Events for Week of 9/4/2015 (Court docs)

Pre-Release Announcement- Locked in- by John Huddle

Locked in
Front cover- Locked in by John Huddle

It is with much excitement and anticipation that I post this announcement. The memoir which I have labored over is very close to release. Locked in includes my story of joining Grace and Truth Fellowship in Greenville, S.C. and the subsequent membership in Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) The body of the book has three parts. Part 1 covers the time period until December 2002. The section includes my thoughts when I first witnessed blasting prayer, the practices of the Greenville church and friendships which grew during those years.

Part 2, Life Inside WOFF, covers deliverance prayer in depth, fund raising practices and pivotal services which I believe were landmarks along the journey. Part 3- Picks up the narrative again in late 2002 extending on through the life changing events of December 2004. This part also includes my exit in July 2008 and the events of December 2008.

From the back cover:
Locked in pulls back the thick curtain holding many of the secrets inside Word of Faith Fellowship. This small mountain church in Spindale, NC first came to the national stage in 1995 when Inside Edition aired video which included their signature practice of blasting deliverance prayer. As the first published survivor memoir of this group, follow John’s journey of hope for his family to live in “God’s ways” by moving to Spindale, only to discover the unique doctrines and practices brought the destruction of the family he loved and cherished. Locked in examines these group practices including communal living, deliverance prayer, fund-raising, as well as revealing the essential beliefs and many unwritten rules governing each member.
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Adam Bartley -“…I did nothing wrong.” (Court docs)

Thursday, August 20, 2015, several motions and notices were filed in the Matthew Fenner case. Rccatalyst.com reported this while including a copy of Adam Bartley’s signature to a handwritten (printed) statement including the words at the bottom of the plea offer, “I reject any plea offer as I did nothing wrong.” (Use the BACK ARROW to return to this post)
exhibit 5 handwritten rejection

Before we get into the rest of the filed documents, let me say right here in Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) language, “I did nothing wrong,” is not the same as “I am innocent of the charges.” Why? In WOFF-think, which we must presume still affects Bartley, you can do “nothing wrong” in God’s eyes and still be guilty of breaking the law. In effect, I did nothing wrong- in the sight of God. In WOFF-think, God’s ways are higher than man’s ways and if He said to pray a certain way or “help someone get back in their place”, you better do it or “you will be in sin.” How do I know? I have heard it over and over. God’s ways are higher than man’s ways. This is how WOFF members can look you straight in the face and tell you “Truth” which is contrary to the facts. Jane speaks Truth as she “hears it from God.” It may be contrary to facts – but she cares not. “Truth” as she hears it protects her from any negative outcomes…right? We shall see. Did it work May 29th?

Included in the filed documents were the following:

Motion to Stay Proceedings- Asking the court to “stay”- stop proceedings until the appellate proceedings are decided. This could take a while. The Daily Courier reported a “tentative hearing for August 27th at 9:30AM to review this request and the Notice of Appeal.
motion to stay proceedings during appeal
Continue reading Adam Bartley -“…I did nothing wrong.” (Court docs)

Resumo dos recentes acontecimentos e processos judiciais

Uma dificuldade que eu encontro ao escrever este blog nos últimos anos é fazer com que novos leitores entendam o conteúdo e a história principal. Leitores leem por um tempo, depois perdem interesse. Semanas ou meses mais tarde, quando retornam é difícil de enterder o drama que perderam. Essa é uma razão que eu fiz a página “Quick Links”. Há certas mensagens são agrupadas por assunto. Tire um tempo para visitar essa página quando puder. Páginas são listados entre o post mais recente eo banner no topo da página inicial.

O post vai recontar os eventos que cercam o caso Mateus Fenner. Nós não teremos espaço para recontar cada detalhe; no entanto, vamos rever os eventos cruciais que terminam com alguns eventos judiciais recentes. Este é o nosso primeiro post disponibilizados em Inglês e em Português. Por favor, compartilhe esta notícia com os nossos amigos no Brasil. Agradeço aos que me concientisaram desta necessidade. Obrigado. Estou muito animado para adicionar Português a este blog!

14 de outubro de 2014-
Um editorial apareceu no site da rcCatalyst.com delineando as difficuldade que Mateus Fenner encontrou para que finalmente sucedesse na apresentação de acusações de agressão contra cinco membros da Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). Em busca de justiça, Mateu foi instruido para fazer suas acusaçoes ao magistrado. O promotor informou-o que precisava fazer a denúncia ao xerife. Ele persistiu até que finalmente um policial aceitou a denúncia. O editorial afirma Matthew tinha fotos dos ferimentos após o assalto e que ele é uma vítima de um crime de ódio. O Procurador do Distrito Rutherford County na época era Brad Greenway e Chris Francis o xerife. Os funcionário, e oficiais envolvidos não demostraram enteresse nenhum de procedir com o depoimento. Ao encerrar o editorial, “Este é um caso a ser vigiado. Não só você tem que ser muito claro sobre seus direitos civis, mas também com a nossa persistente aplicação da lei atual e procuradores … Obrigado por fazer a coisa certa, mesmo com as probabilidades empilhadas contra você. ”
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DISQUALIFICATION!!!

This conclusive ruling by Judge Marvin Pope caps off a week of big developments in the Matthew Fenner case. Friday, the ruling was made public on rccatalyst.com. Judge Pope granted the State’s motion for disqualification of all attorneys affiliated with Tomblin, Farmer and Morris (TFM). The attorneys listed on the TFM website include Joshua Farmer, Andrea Farmer, Mark Morris and Caleb Farmer. This ruling bars them from representing in any manner in the defense of any of the five defendants.

From the rccatalyst.com article, “The representation of five co-defendants in this cause of action (now four co-defendants) is a concurrent conflict of interest which exists and cannot effectively be waived by a defendant absent knowledge of what a co-defendant may testify on behalf of the State against the remaining co-defendants.”

Additionally, from the ruling, “This disqualification of an attorney does not mean that the attorney has violated a specific disciplinary rule.”

In granting the motion the judge also requested the District Attorney to “calendar a court date for the Court to advise the remaining defendants of their right to counsel, either appointed or a waiver of their right co counsel.”
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