What began as a project to build a new sanctuary at Starkville’s Second Baptist Church has evolved into an internal dispute over who has authority to act on the church’s behalf, pitting the church’s pastors and deacons against its board of trustees.
Not only is the contractor now facing a criminal charge, but church trustees filed a lawsuit in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court in December 2015 against the contractor, Pastor Joseph Stone Jr. and Head Deacon Terry Miller.
On Tuesday, a group of deacons, associate pastors and church members fought back, holding a press conference at the Yeates Street church building to address rumors and what they feel has been negative media coverage. The group also said they intend to seek to recover more than $94,000 trustees paid to retain Jackson-based attorney Dorsey Carson, money the group believes to be unauthorized use of church funds.
The press conference comes after Carson filed a theft complaint with the Starkville Police Department on Jan. 22, alleging deacons, on Miller’s instructions, withheld money collected through church offerings in attempt to deny trustees access to those funds.
“We want to publicly declare three things regarding the trustee chairman of the church (Benny Hairston), the church treasurer (Jackie Lindsey) and their rebel confederates,” Associate Pastor Rev. Timothy Bush said during the press conference. “First, they do not speak for the church. Second, they are not authorized to conduct any business whatsoever on behalf of, or in the in name of this church and, third, they have no authority to represent this church in any way.”
Neither Stone nor Miller attended Tuesday’s press conference.
Who has authority?
Deacon Don McGowan said the church membership had authorized the deacons, as officers of the church, “to retain legal counsel to assist in recovering funds lost to our former contractor, Mr. Donald Crowther, and to attorney Dorsey Carson.”
Other members present also decried the trustees’ actions as inappropriate.
“The trustees’ role is to look after the property, its possessions and the upkeep of the buildings,” said church member Janette Self. “In our church constitution, it says the trustees hold in trust the church’s property, with a specific vote authorizing each action. What the trustee chairman has done was never approved by the church.”
Self added the complaint filed against the Pastor Stone and Deacon Miller “was not done with the knowledge, authorization or approval of this church. It was done by individuals acting on their own who should bear the cost and responsibility of filing the complaint, not the church.”
Charles Ware, a spokesman for the church trustees said during a phone interview with The Dispatch later Tuesday afternoon that trustees had the authority to take action against the contractor, Pastor Stone and Deacon Miller, because they entered a building contract without the trustees’ approval.
“We have a church constitution which says the legal business of the church falls within the trustees’ authority,” Ware said. “All financial matters fall under the protection of the trustees, not the pastor or the deacons, who serve an ecclesiastical purpose.”
Both sides have cited church by-laws to support their authority to act on behalf of the church.
Background
The matter has been in litigation since December 2015, when Carson, acting on behalf of the church trustees, filed a civil suit in circuit court against TCM Companies of Long Beach, owned by Crowther, as well as Pastor Stone and Deacon Miller in an effort to recover more than $400,000 in damages resulting from the stalled project.
In that suit, the plaintiffs allege Pastor Stone negotiated a contract with Crowther without trustees’ approval and Deacon Miller made payments to Crowther’s company because the church treasurer refused to issue checks since work was not being done on the project. Construction ended in July 2015 with only some dirt work performed.
In April 2016, Starkville Police Department arrested Crowther, 69, on a false pretense charge, alleging his company falsified copies of checks paid to contractors, which were later erroneously reported to the church.
The trustees’ suit also alleges Stone and Miller received kickbacks from Crowther, but the claim has yet to be proven.
In December 2015, after the trustees’ suit had been filed, church membership voted to file a petition with the circuit court to have Miller and Stone removed from the suit, a request Judge Jim Kitchens denied.
The trustees then received permanent injunctive relief from Kitchens on Sept. 19, 2016, prohibiting the church from removing members of its board of trustees.
Stone appealed that ruling to the Mississippi Supreme Court in October 2016, with the Supreme Court denying Stone’s appeals in January.
During Tuesday’s press conference, the group representing the pastor and deacons provided a list of 10 trustee-issued payments to Carson’s law firm made from November 2015 through Dec. 15, 2016, totaling $94,672.95.
The group said the church did not approve those payments and will seek to recover those funds.
Ware, however, argues it’s the pastor who is driving up the church’s legal costs.
“The reason we have that much in lawyer fees is a direct result of Pastor Stone’s repeated frivolous motions and appeals,” Ware said.
Carson, who The Dispatch contacted by email, said the trustees have acted within their responsibility in protecting the church’s financial interests.
“Second Baptist would not have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of the church’s money if the preacher and head deacon had not funneled the money to the contractor,” Carson said. “By Church Constitution, the trustees hold and protect church property. The preacher’s and head deacon’s argument that the church trustees do not have the power to file suit and recover church monies has already been thoroughly argued and rejected.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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