SEATTLE (WA)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
August 23, 2023
By Julie Roys
In 2018, “Sarah” was a 20-year-old college student and aspiring singer-songwriter—and “Andre” was a popular worship artist whose song had recently gone viral.
But that year, Sarah says Andre sexually assaulted her. And when she reported the alleged assault to the church where they both served on the worship team, the church kicked Sarah off the worship team, while Andre remained, she said.
The church where Sarah and Andre served is Churchome—a West Coast megachurch led by pastors Judah and Chelsea Smith and attended by celebrities Justin Bieber and Kourtney Kardashian. We’re not using Sarah’s real name because The Roys Report (TRR) does not report the names of alleged sexual assault victims unless they request it. Andre is a pseudonym, as well. We’re using it because Andre was never charged with a crime.
However, Phillip Ferrell, who served as the music curator at Churchome from 2016-2020, confirmed to TRR that Sarah reported the alleged assault to the church. Ferrell told TRR that he met with Sarah and her parents to discuss what happened.
Ferrell claimed the church didn’t give consequences to either Sarah or Andre because it was a case of he said, she said.
However, Sarah sent TRR text messages from former Churchome staff member Alex Deas, who managed worship for Churchome’s now-shuttered University District Campus in Seattle. Those messages confirm that Deas removed Sarah from the worship team.
TRR contacted Deas for comment about why she removed Sarah. Deas replied, “I don’t have anything to add.”
But Sarah said, “Now that I look back, it’s kind of like that celebrity culture of whoever’s the most liked gets to lead. The person who (assaulted me) was kind of famous in the church because he had written a song that had gone viral. . . . Him and his friend were really well known in the church, and everyone was like a fangirl to them.”
Sarah is the third woman who’s come forward claiming that Churchome protected her abuser while dismissing or punishing her. As reported previously, one woman claimed Churchome kicked her out of the now-defunct Churchome College when she reported a rape. Another claimed Churchome protected the man who drugged and assaulted her, while the incident left her traumatized and suicidal.
Churchome has denied any wrongdoing in both previous cases. When asked about its handling of Sarah’s alleged assault, the church said it was “unaware of any accusation” by Sarah against Andre.
The alleged assault
Sarah said she and Andre became friends while serving together on the worship team at Churchome’s University District Campus.
Sarah told TRR that Andre was someone she “really respected” and “looked up to” because of his worship leading and songwriting skills.
Sarah said Andre was also very “flirty.” And one day, he got her phone and sent several texts from her phone to his, saying things like, “I’m a (sic) your biggest fan,” “Sign an autograph,” “You are my celebrity crush!” “You are the best singer alive.”
Texts supplied by Sarah show that the same day, June 28, Andre missed a worship team rehearsal and texted Sarah around 10 p.m., asking her to send him a recording of the vocal parts the team had recorded. Texts show he also urged her to drop what she was doing to hang out with him.
Sarah refused. But after midnight, she said Andre called and invited her to meet him at Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash., where he said he had access to music studios where they could write songs together.
At 12:55 a.m., Sarah texted Andre, “Can’t believe you convinced me to do this 😂”
Yet, Sarah said when she met Andre at Northwest, he told her the studio was closed, but suggested they write songs in the park across the street. Sarah said she was hesitant but conceded.
At the park, Sarah said Andre put his arm around her, which she claimed was “super weird” because their relationship was not romantic. Sarah said Andre showed no interest in writing songs, but repeatedly asked her personal, sexual questions, so she told him she wanted to go home.
When they got to her car, Andre got in the back seat and pressured Sarah to join him, saying she was being weird when she objected, Sarah said. She added that she was very naïve at the time and didn’t recognize the “red flags,” so she gave in to Andre’s pressure.
“And that’s when he starts trying to talk to me and ask me questions,” Sarah said, “while grabbing me and pulling me close to him. . . . I don’t know what’s going on, so I started to visibly pull away because I feel intimidated with the situation. And I’m trying to get as far away as I can. He keeps grabbing me and that’s when he started trying to kiss me and touching me inappropriately.”
Sarah said she froze while Andre groped her up and down her legs, chest, and between her legs—and every time she tried to get to the other side of the car, he’d pull her back.
Eventually, Sarah said she got away from Andre and into the driver’s seat, but Andre refused to get out of her car for about 20 minutes.
Sarah said that after she left, Andre called her repeatedly, but she didn’t answer. At 2:36 a.m., Andre texted Sarah, “Can I ask you something real quick(?) It’s really important.”
Sarah said she continued to ignore Andre and instead called her best friend, “Rose,” who also served on Churchome’s worship team. (We’re not using Rose’s real name to protect Sarah’s identity.)
“I just felt so violated,” Sarah said. “I felt so many emotions, like, this is somebody I trusted. I’m just confused, like, ‘What just happened?’”
TRR spoke with Rose, who confirmed Sarah’s story.
Rose said Sarah was “crying and freaking out” and “so scared” on the phone. Rose said she urged Sarah to talk to her parents because they were “very wise” and would know what to do.Sarah said she then drove to her parents’ house and told them what happened, and they were “very upset.”
TRR spoke with Sarah’s father, who corroborated Sarah’s story. He said Sarah didn’t say Andre had assaulted her—only that he had “come on” to her, then “grabbed her” and “wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Her father said he viewed the incident as harassment.
Sarah said Andre kept calling her the morning of the alleged assault, so she eventually answered his call. She said Andre begged her not to tell anyone what had happened.
TRR reached out to Andre for comment, but he didn’t reply.
Church leaders blame Sarah, remove her from worship team
Sarah said her parents were longtime Churchome members, and her father knew many of the top leaders, including Phillip Ferrell and Judah Smith. So that morning, Sarah’s father texted Ferrell, requesting to meet immediately.
Sarah also texted then-Churchome University District campus manager, Alex Deas, the same day, requesting a meeting. After first agreeing to meet, Deas replied, “We may need to delay our talk. I’m waiting to hear back from Phil (Ferrell). It seems like a delicate situation and I don’t want to get ahead of myself . . .”
Sarah’s friend, Rose, said leaders at Churchome’s University District Campus came to her the same day and tried to undermine Sarah’s credibility. “They were just trying to put everything against (Sarah),” Rose said.
On either July 1st or 2nd, Sarah and both her parents met with Ferrell, both Ferrell and Sarah’s father told TRR.
“In that conversation, the four of us agreed that we don’t necessarily know what happened in the car,” Ferrell told TRR. Ferrell described Sarah and Andre as peers, who were about the same age, and added: “We do know that two adults—(Sarah and Andre)—made some choices that were not necessarily good choices.”
Ferrell added, it was “not a good look for either one of them.”Sarah said she remembers a “lack of empathy overall” among the leaders of the church. “Pretty much all the higher-ups didn’t care at all,” she said. “All they were saying was like, ‘You don’t have a case—like if you want to go to the police, that’s up to you. But this isn’t our problem.’”
Sarah said she never filed a report with police because she didn’t think she had sufficient evidence.
Ferrell told TRR that Churchome gave “no specific penalty” to Sarah or Andre. However, texts from Deas show that she removed Sarah from the worship team.
On July 3—four days after the alleged assault—Deas texted Sarah, “I need to take you off of the schedule for this weekend. I will give you a call to discuss.”
Sarah added that Andre was on the schedule that weekend, as well, but was allowed to remain. Andre also continued leading worship after that weekend, both Sarah and Rose said.
Sarah said she never was scheduled to lead worship at Churchome again. Rose said the church also stopped scheduling her on the worship team too.
Yet, Andre, who was good friends with Ferrell, continued to lead worship, both Rose and Sarah said.
Sarah said the church’s response to her was devastating. “Worship meant everything to me,” she told TRR.
Sarah’s father said he was upset by Churchome’s response and pressed Ferrell for another meeting. On July 7, the two met, Sarah’s father said. The conversation centered on whether Sarah was sexually assaulted or not and whether she intended to go to police, her father said. Since Sarah wasn’t intending to go to police, the church essentially dropped the case, he said.
On July 8, Sarah texted Deas that Ferrell had told her “it would be best if we chatted.” Deas replied, “Not this week. . . . I need a step back from the whole situation.”
About a week later, Sarah said she and Deas finally met, and the conversation cut her deeply.
“This is a conversation that honestly messed me up to this day because of how she was able to just flip it on me and made me feel like I did something wrong in the situation,” Sarah said. “She was like, ‘We’re going to take you off the worship team . . . until you earn your way back on.’ She said that I can’t be trusted around men. . . . ‘You’re the one that got in the backseat because you wanted it.’”
At the same time, Sarah said Deas treated what Andre did as “no big deal.” Deas told Sarah that everybody makes mistakes, and she needs to forgive Andre and move on, Sarah said.
Sarah said the conversation was “the worst gaslighting I’ve ever had in my life” and took her months to “realize how messed up everything (Deas) said was.”
The aftermath
It’s been six years since Sarah was kicked off the worship team after reporting her alleged assault. But she told TRR that the wounds feel fresh.
“It just hurts a lot because I trusted them,” she said. “. . . And then to have it turn around and everyone was talking about it at the church, but no one would talk to me about it. It was just this whispering and like . . . I was just this horrible person that was trying to ruin his life or something.”
Sarah said she and her whole family left the church, as did Rose.
“It was hard to worship God while the leader was worshipping and preaching and I could see (Andre) there,” Rose said. She added that since leaving, she’s heard from other women who were abused by men at Churchome.
“It’s always our fault, the women’s fault,” Rose said. “For (Sarah), it was like, ‘How are people going to see me? Are they going to blame me or blame him?’”
Sarah’s father said that after TRR reached out to Churchome for comment, Churchome General Counsel Troy Anderson contacted him and requested a meeting. The two then met and Anderson told Sarah’s father that he didn’t know anything about the alleged assault in 2018 or Sarah’s removal from the worship team, Sarah’s father said. Sarah’s father said he was surprised by this but believed Anderson.
Sarah, however, said she’s more skeptical. She said she now attends another church but has declined invitations to serve on the worship team.
“Worship has always been something so close to me, and how I connected with Jesus,” she said. “. . . But now, my heart is closed off to it. I was so deeply wounded, so deeply wounded to this day.”