Trial near for North Carolina Sect Members Accused of Beating Demons out of People
News & Record
It has been nearly 4? years since Matthew Fenner said he was beaten in a church sanctuary by a group of congregants hell-bent on expelling his “homosexual demons.” After countless twists and turns, the long-delayed, high-profile case finally appears ready to move forward in North Carolina Superior Court. Jury selection could begin today for the first of five Word of Faith Fellowship members charged in the attack. Each defendant will be tried separately. The first defendant, longtime minister Brooke Covington, 58, has pleaded innocent to one count each of kidnapping and assault. If convicted, she faces up to two years in prison. The 23-year-old Fenner is bracing himself. “I’m going to have to relive that night again,” said Fenner, who spent two years pressuring authorities to investigate the allegations against the 750-member evangelical church in Spindale. Ex-members say church leaders believe that possessed congregants must have devils beaten or screamed out of them. Fenner joined the sect with his mother and brother in 2010. He fled after he said he was attacked on Jan. 27, 2013, but his family members are still inside. The defense has filed motions to move the trial out of Rutherford County, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains midway between Charlotte and Asheville, due to years of negative publicity about the church’s practices. In the alternative, the defense wants a jury brought in from another area. If both motions are denied, or if the judge decides to try seating a jury before making a decision, the trial could begin today. But if the judge grants either motion, the trial would likely be delayed. As part of an ongoing, two-year investigation into abuse of Word of Faith Fellowship congregants by church leaders, The Associated Press interviewed four former church members who said they witnessed the Fenner assault. “They just kept hitting him over and over. It was horrible. ... I thought that (Fenner) was going to be the first person they killed,” said ex-congregant Danielle Cordes. Said another former member, Andre Oliveira: “I saw them throw him around, pin him on the floor. They were screaming at him, hitting him over and over. It just made me sick.” Based on interviews with 43 former members, documents and secretly made recordings, the AP reported in February that Word of Faith Fellowship congregants were regularly punched, choked, slammed to the floor or thrown through walls in a form of deliverance meant to “purify” sinners by beating out devils. The AP also previously revealed that congregants were ordered by church leaders to lie to authorities investigating reports of abuse, and that two assistant district attorneys and a veteran social worker were among those who coached congregants and their children on what to say to investigators. After the AP report, the prosecutors, including one who is a son-in-law of a church founder, left their jobs, and the social worker resigned. The sect was founded in 1979 by Jane Whaley, a former math teacher, and her husband, Sam, a former used car salesman. Under Jane Whaley’s leadership, Word of Faith Fellowship grew from a handful of followers to its current congregation and another nearly 2,000 members in churches in Brazil and Ghana and affiliations in other countries.
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