NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press
BY MITCH WEISS AND HOLBROOK MOHR
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press and the Charlotte Observer filed legal motions Wednesday to gain access to documents and lift a gag order in the case of a North Carolina minister accused of orchestrating the beating of a congregant to expel his “homosexual demons.”
The motions filed by the news outlets are related to the case of Brooke Covington, a minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina. She is charged with kidnapping and assaulting Matthew Fenner in the church’s sanctuary.
Covington is accused of urging others to slap, punch and choke Fenner for nearly two hours in January 2013 in a practice known as “blasting,” which involves intense screaming meant to drive out devils.
Judge Gary Gavenus declared a mistrial June 6 after the jury foreman brought unauthorized documents into deliberations. The judge sealed those documents and issued a gag order preventing witnesses, prosecutors, defense attorneys and jurors from discussing the case.
One of the news organizations’ motions, filed in Rutherford County Superior Court, called the gag order “a blanket, unconstitutional prior restraint on speech which would effectively and improperly curtail public discussion of this case by anyone with knowledge of the case.”
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