HUNTSVILLE (TX)
Ministry Watch [Matthews NC]
September 20, 2025
By Kim Roberts
The legal battle continues in a sexual abuse lawsuit involving Chi Alpha Campus Ministries of the Assemblies of God. Motions asking the court stop certain discovery requests and enforce others are being traded by both parties.
Discovery is the process that allows parties to obtain evidence from each other in a civil lawsuit.
The General Council of the Assemblies of God is being sued by two plaintiffs who claim they were abused by Daniel Savala while he was involved in Chi Alpha’s Chapter at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. The General Council has asked the court to quash, or not allow, the deposition of Doug Clay.
Clay serves as the General Superintendent of the General Council of the denomination. As such, the defendant claims that he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the Chi Alpha college Ministry, specifically the one in Huntsville where the alleged abuse took place.
The defendant argues that the plaintiffs have not shown that Clay has any “unique or superior personal knowledge of discoverable information” and thus the deposition of the “apex” official should not be granted.
“This deposition request is simply made for the purpose of harassment,” the court filing reads.
Instead, the defendant argues that the plaintiffs should take depositions of “lower-level” employees and make requests for production of documents from the Assemblies of God in order to get the desired information.
Notably, the defendant also moved to quash the deposition of a lower-level employee, Donna Barrett, who serves as the General Secretary of the denomination. That motion claims that the defendant’s counsel is not available on the date requested for the deposition.
The Assemblies of God also moved to quash the deposition of Scott Martin, the former national leader of Chi Alpha, who resigned in 2023 in light of the sexual abuse allegations within the college ministry.
The motion to quash claims that Martin is no longer under the control of the denomination. According to a statement by the denomination’s Office of Public Relations, Martin was recently appointed to serve in Iceland with Assemblies of God World Missions.
Additionally, the Assemblies of God is asking the Harris County District Court to compel the plaintiffs to produce communications they had with the alleged abuser, Daniel Savala, along with communications they had with Ron Bloomingkemper, the founder of an online forum — XA and the Lion’s Den — where abuse survivors share their stories.
These requests come after the plaintiffs asked the court for extreme sanctions against the defendants failure to comply with discovery requests even after the court ordered them to do so.
The plaintiffs’ attorney is seeking sanctions against the Assemblies of God General Council, including a jury instruction that would allow the jury to infer that the General Council knew that Savala was a sexual predator and did nothing to stop or warn plaintiffs from being sent to him and that it benefitted from the sex trafficking of the plaintiffs.
The court has not yet ruled on the plaintiffs’ request for extreme sanctions nor the defendant’s motions to quash.
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