In my last post, I wrote about a child sex abuse lawsuit recently settled by Gateway Church. Christian Post published a story about this case linking to my documents.
There are two additional lawsuits against Gateway Church that have been brought to my attention.
The first is a 2016 lawsuit alleging physical assault and injury to a child during childcare at the church while the parents were attending services. The defendants are GATEWAY CHURCH, JA’COLE CLARK, CALEB JEWELL, TIFFANY YOUNG, JOHN DOE #1, JOHN DOE #2, JOHN DOE #3, and JOHN DOE #4.
Plaintiffs sought a church that offered a daycare for their disabled son. While Plaintiffs attended church services. On or about December 2012, Gateway represented to Plaintiffs that Gateway’s
daycare could provide care for [redacted]. Gateway further assured that the Program provided one-on- one attention and care for the attending children and also assured the safety and welfare of [redacted].
On or about December 14, 2014, Plaintiffs brought [redacted] to the Program before attending church service in Gateway’s Auditorium. The Program was staffed with, Clark, Jewell, Young, John Doe #1, John Doe #2, John Doe #3, and John Doe #4 (the “Supervisors”).
While attending the Program, a boy (the “Boy”) was allowed by the Supervisors to commence an assault upon [redacted] causing him injury.
Plaintiffs first discovered injuries after church services concluded. Plaintiffs immediately rushed [redacted] to the hospital to receive medical treatment.
Also on or about December 14, 2014, Plaintiffs called Ken Jackson (“Jackson”), the executive pastor of the Program, in search of an explanation as to the events that resulted in injury. Plaintiffs were baffled as to how [redacted] sustained an injury if in fact the Program actually was providing one-on-one supervision.
On or about January 15, 2015, Plaintiffs contacted another representative of
Gateway (the “Employee”). The Employee stated that injury was the result of the Boy’s second assault while in the Program.
Gateway’s Spoliation of Evidence
On or about April 17, 2015, an agent (the “Agent”) from Church Mutual
Insurance Company (“Church Mutual”), Gateway’s insurance company, called Plaintiffs
regarding injury. The Agent asked Plaintiffs if they had seen the video of injury (the “Video”). No representative of Gateway previously disclosed the existence of the Video to Plaintiffs.
On or about April 20, 2015, Jackson stated that injury was captured on the
Video and that the Video had been destroyed.
On or about April 21, 2015, another agent of Church Mutual (“Agent Two”) notified Plaintiffs that she would be taking care of the investigation, but that she needed time to see the Video. Agent Two informed Plaintiffs that Gateway had the Video in its possession, but refused to provide it to Plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs were forced to hire counsel to try and obtain the Video. On June 5,
2015, Defendants’ counsel informed Plaintiffs’ counsel that the entire original Video could not
be produced because most ofthe video footage had been destroyed.
Gateway had a duty to reasonably preserve the original Video. Gateway knew or
reasonably should have known that there was a substantial chance that a claim would be filed
and that the Video was material to this lawsuit. Accordingly, the Court should sanction Gateway
for spoliation of the Video.
At the time of injury, [the parents] were located in another building next door to the building where [redacted] was injured. [Parents] were not informed of injury before their arrival at the Program to pick up their son. The shock experienced by was a result of a direct emotional impact on them from a sensory and contemporaneous observance of the incident. As a result of [redacted] injuries, [redacted]
suffered mental anguish damages.
This 2016 lawsuit was settled on December 12, 2016 with an agreed upon sum for the Plaintiffs.
Federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Gateway Church on January 22, 2023. There has been recent very court activity and may have been settled out of court.
NATURE OF COMPLAINT
This is an action instituted pursuant to alleged violations of the Plaintiff’s rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq, Americans with Disabilities Act (the “ADA”) and under Texas Labor Code § 21.051 to remedy acts of employment discrimination perpetrated against her by Defendant Gateway Church (“Gateway”). Plaintiff contends that Gateway’s employees discriminated against her because of her sex on more than one occasion when they subjected her to a hostile work environment as a result of ongoing harassment and discrimination based on her sex/gender from her supervisor and those above him, and she faced retaliation due to her complaints of them. From nearly the beginning of her employment at Gateway, Plaintiff was denied employment opportunities and promotions with Gateway due to her gender. She also was subjected to repeated harassment and discrimination from her supervisors. Plaintiff’s complaints about the harassment and disparate treatment that she was experiencing in her role as an Administrative Assistant were answered with retaliation and ultimately termination.
[Plaintiff] is a female. began her employment with Gateway Church in North Richland Hills, Texas (“NRH”) in May of 2018 as a temporary Administrative Assistant reporting to Pastor Al Pearson, Member Services (“ Pastor Pearson”) making $15.00 per hour. She became a full-time employee with Gateway as an Administrative Assistant to Associate Pastor Kemtal Glasgow (then-Associate Pastor at NRH, but now promoted to Frisco, TX Campus Pastor), CARE, Outreach, and Central Services (“Pastor Glasgow”). [Plaintiff] took a pay decrease to $14.42 per hour; she challenged the decrease, but Human Resources (“HR”) told her it was because of health benefits. At all times of her employment with Gateway, [plaintiff] was an hourly employee who had to clock in and out and had no decision-making ability.
When [plaintiff] began working at Gateway in May of 2018, she had just gotten out of treatment for cancer and bone marrow treatment. She reported to Pastor Pearson. [Plaintiff] was subjected to ongoing disparaging comments about her appearance and unwanted romantic advances from Pastor Pearson while working for him. Pastor Pearson told [plaintiff] that God gave her cancer to teach her a lesson (May 2018), he repeatedly asked her to take off her wig (as her hair was growing back from cancer treatments) (June – December 2018) and urged her to stop wearing a wig and just go bald (said in front of Crystal Ramon, Administrative Assistant, during July 2018). He made comments about her appearance and how good she smelled and asked if she was dating anyone (December 2018).
Pastor Pearson also bought [plaintiff] gifts (December 2018). Pastor Pearson also forced her to be alone with him in his office with the doors shut and blinds closed to discuss personal, non-work-related matters. Pastor Pearson, after had been employed for one month, during their weekly oversight meetings, began to complain to [plaintiff] about his marriage and his wife when the two of them were alone at these meetings which made [plaintiff] very uncomfortable. [Plaintiff] reported Pastor Pearson’s behavior in August 2018 to Pastor Glasgow. Pastor Glasgow told [plaintiff] that she was not to be alone with Pastor Pearson.
In February 2019, Glasgow asked [plaintiff] to apply for an open “Care Pastor” position which would have meant a significant pay increase and increased responsibility for her since she was working as an Administrative Assistant. [Plaintiff] interviewed for the position with Pastor Stokes Collins, NRH Campus Pastor (“Pastor Collins”), Pastor Wendell DePrang, Equip, NRH Campus Coordinator (“Pastor DePrang”), Pastor Lorena Valle, Associate Pastor of NRH, Alicia Osgood, NRH Campus Coordinator, and Pastor Glasgow. During the course of the interview, Pastor Collins and Pastor DePrang informed [plaintiff] that while she was more than qualified for the position, they were looking to hire a man for the position because “our congregation responds better to men.” Subsequent to the interview, Alph Samuels (a male) was chosen for the job.
During March 2019, Pastor Glasgow was promoted, and Pastor Kyle Fox (“Pastor Fox”) replaced him. Pastor Collins, who was Pastor Fox’s immediate supervisor asked [plaintiff] about the issues with Pastor Pearson and decided that [plaintiff] and Pastor Pearson should both report to Pastor Fox.
In June 2019, [plaintiff] was invited by Pastor Glasgow to interview for Associate Pastor of Groups at the Frisco, Texas location of Gateway. [Plaintiff] was interviewed by Pastor Adana Wilson, Pastor of Groups at Frisco, who informed her that while she was well qualified for the position, the Frisco team wanted to hire a male for the position. Subsequently, Brad Stahl (a male) was hired.
In August 2019, Gateway added more responsibilities to [plaintiff] job as Administrative Assistant. [Plaintiff] asked Pastor Fox if she was going to receive an increase in her salary and he told her that she was not getting a raise. Pastor Fox further stated to her that she should view the added responsibility as an “honor.”
In late September 2019, even with the knowledge of Pastor Pearson’s behavior towards [plaintiff] Pastor Collins made the decision to have her report to Pastor Pearson again. When [plaintiff] objected, Collins told her that Pastor Pearson had “changed” and that she needed to give him another chance.
On or around October 7, 2019, [plaintiff] complained to Pastor Fox about having to report to Pastor Pearson. Pastor Fox told her that she was being insubordinate because she “would not let it go.” Patricia Tribett, Pastor Collins’ administrative assistant told [plaintiff] that Pastor Collins did not believe her accusations. [Plaintiff] told Tribett that then she would start recording her interactions with Pastor Pearson.
On or around October 21, 2019, [plaintiff] was pulled into a meeting with Pastors Fox, Collins, Pearson, and Virginia Agata, Associate Director of HR for Gateway. [Plaintiff] was presented with a written warning by the Pastors about she how was challenging authority. Pastor Collins confronted [plaintiff]
about whether she was in fact recording her interactions with Pastor Pearson as she had told Patricia Tribett, she was going to do.
Throughout December of 2019, [plaintiff] was forced to work directly with Pastor Pearson, [plaintiff] was again subjected to multiple weekly one on one meetings with Pastor Pearson which included Pastor Pearson asking questions about her personal life, making inappropriate remarks, and attempting to physically touch her. Specifically, in one of these meetings, Pastor Pearson made a physical advance on her and talked to her about “love languages” and how the two of them could do physical touch in his office and he could be her spiritual mentor. [Plaintiff] rejected Pastor Pearson’s advances and told him she was uncomfortable with him. This continued until [plaintiff] was out on FMLA with a medical flare-up from January 2020 to March 2020.
Upon her return to work in March of 2020, [plaintiff] met with Pastor Byron Copeland, Executive Campus Pastor over all campus pastors and told him what she was experiencing. Pastor Copeland sympathized with her but did nothing. Pastor Copeland even told her that Pastor Pearson was the worst manager at Gateway and that he had a bad reputation with the staff. After this meeting, [plaintiff] contacted Pastor Collins again and asked to be moved out from under Pastor Pearson. Pastor Collins replied that [plaintiff] was being insubordinate and said he would not move her due to Covid. Pastor Collins further stated that he did not believe her and that he was going to inform HR of her insubordinate attitude toward him (Collins); that she was challenging his behavior and not submitting to his leadership.
In April 2020, [plaintiff] met with Virginia Agada and Rebecca Wilson (both in HR) to report the multiple incidents with Pastor Pearson. Nothing changed after this meeting.
On March 9, 2021, Pastor Pearson cornered during a worship service at NRH and started talking about the story of the woman at the well found in the New Testament. Pastor Pearson said that Jesus never forgave this woman. [Plaintiff] informed him that she did not agree with his comments about forgiveness and asked to “change the subject.” Pastor Pearson replied that he wanted to make sure he was not “casting his pearls before swine.” [Plaintiff] moved out away from Pastor Pearson and went to a different area.
[Plaintiff] was working a weekend rotation at the NRH campus with Pastor Pearson on March 21, 2021. During lunch Pastor Pearson was seated next to [plaintiff] and turned and said to her, “Do you know what opened pandora’s box for the MeToo movement?” [Plaintiff] responded, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Pastor Pearson said, “Do you know where the #Metoo movement started? “[Plaintiff] stated again, “I have no idea.” He then said, “It all started with the false accusations against Bill Cosby. Then that opened pandora’s box for all the false allegations.” Again, feeling uncomfortable, [plaintiff] then switched the subject to something else. Then Pastor Pearson got up and moved.
[Plaintiff] contacted Pastor Fox (also Pearson’s manager) and asked to meet with him. She met with him on March 26, 2021 and told Pastor Fox that she did not feel safe or comfortable working with or being around Pastor Pearson and requested to be moved somewhere else. Pastor Fox instructed [plaintiff] to write down her concerns and exactly what occurred and to continue working as normal.
On March 30, 2021, Pastor Pearson, and Monique Butler were having a meeting. Pastor Pearson asked Ms. Butler to leave the meeting which left [plaintiff] alone with Pastor Pearson. Pastor Pearson then gave [plaintiff] a book on repentance and forgiveness that he said he bought for her. [Plaintiff] got up and exited the room without taking the book. She followed up with Pastor Fox and told him that Pastor Pearson was still trying to meet with her alone and that she did not feel comfortable or safe with him. Pastor Fox instructed her to go home and finish the day working remotely.
April 1, 2021, [plaintiff] again submitted her written concerns to Pastor Collins, Pastor Fox, and Virginia Agada, asking again to be moved because she did not feel safe or comfortable reporting to or working with Pastor Pearson. [Plaintiff] was told by Virginia Agata that she was going to have to meet with Pastor Pearson face-to-face and read her concerns to him in a “Reconciliation Meeting”, but in the meantime, she would report to Pastor Fox. She was also informed by HR that she would only be eligible to apply for a new position within Gateway after the completion of the Reconciliation Meeting. HR also informed her that Gateway would not move her without her applying for a position where she desired to transfer.
On April 20, 2021, the in-person “Reconciliation Meeting” began with Pastor Pearson, Pastor Fox, and Virginia Agada (from HR) present in Paulette Gillespie’s office. [Plaintiff] was instructed to read her complaints regarding Pastor Pearson out loud in front of him. He became hostile and verbally aggressive but admitted to allegations against him. [Plaintiff] left the meeting because she did not feel safe. [Plaintiff] was instructed to continue the meeting on April 27, 2021, and continue reading her accusations to Pastor Pearson. Pastor Pearson again became openly hostile and started scratching his head repeatedly with his “middle finger.” [Plaintiff] again got up and left the room as none of the other people in attendance came to her defense.
In May of 2021, [plaintiff] again reported her hostile work environment to Virginia Agada, Associate Director of HR, Pastor Byron Copeland, Executive Campus Pastor, and Paulette Gillespie, HR Director in an email.
After meeting with Pastor Collins, NRH Campus Pastor, Virginia Agada, and Si Alford, also an Associate Director HR, regarding her email on May 13, 2021, Pastor Copeland aggressively confronted [plaintiff] while they were at the Administrative Headquarters of Gateway. Pastor Copeland backed [plaintiff] into a corner of the room they were in and threatened to fire her if she didn’t shut up and stop stirring up drama. Pastor Copeland subsequently sent her an apology via Slack later that evening.
On June 7, 2021, Pastor Collins, Si Alford, and Paulette Gillespie had a meeting with [plaintiff]
to give her a “Probation & Employment Commitment” document which is a “write- up.” The complaints in the document focused on hostile workplace complaint (email) to HR and named [plaintiff] as the individual at fault rather than Pastor Pearson. [Plaintiff] refused to sign the document.
The following day, [plaintiff] went on FMLA leave for 6 weeks due to a medical flare- up. However, during that time, Paulette Gillespie attempted to get her to either resign and receive 3 months’ pay or sign the Probation document. [Plaintiff] notified Sara Bears, Director of Compliance HR, of Gillespie’s efforts. On June 24, 2021, [plaintiff] received a written apology for how she had been treated by Gateway via email and FedEx delivery. Gateway also agreed to pay for counseling. [Plaintiff] replied requesting a written apology from Pastor Pearson and to be moved when she returned from FMLA.
On July 19, 2021, [plaintiff] returned to work from FMLA leave; however, Pastor Fox placed her on administrative leave until a meeting scheduled for July 21 with HR. On July 21, 2021, [plaintiff] met with Pastor Collins, Pastor Fox, Virginia Agada, and Paulette Gillespie and was presented with her second “Probation & Employment Commitment” document.
[Plaintiff] learned during the meeting that she would not be getting a written apology from Pastor Pearson because he had been terminated. Gillespie told [plaintiff] that “It is your fault Pearson is gone, so there will be no apology from him.” Gillespie further stated that Gateway was willing to pay six (6) months’ severance payment to [plaintiff] if she will “resign today.”
[Plaintiff] later learned that Gateway paid the equivalent of two (2) years’ salary to Pastor Pearson in exchange for his signature on a non-disclosure agreement. [Plaintiff] was in a car accident right after the July 21, 2021 meeting and suffered significant injuries and went out on FMLA for six (6) weeks. On July 29, 2021, Gateway agreed to pay for counseling for to help recover from the harm done by Pastor Pearson.
[Plaintiff] returned to work at Gateway on September 7, 2021. That same day, she was terminated during a Zoom meeting with Pastor Collins, Si Alford, and Jeanne Williams, HR Coordinator, where she was presented with a “Separation Agreement” that offered 6 months’ pay and benefits paid through April 2022. [Plaintiff] was told by Pastor Collins during the call that “We have come to the place where we need to move on. We have reviewed the case, looked at it, and we have made the decision to part ways. God has plans for you, God has plans for the campus, but we are just at a space where we feel those plans are going in two different directions.” [Plaintiff] learned later that Pastor Collins and Pastor Pearson were good friends.
Gateway Church and its employees intentionally treated [plaintiff] in a manner that caused a hostile work environment for [plaintiff]. Additionally, the circumstances surrounding Gateway Church’s termination of [plaintiff] are discriminatory and qualify as disparate treatment of [plaintiff] by Gateway Church. As such Gateway Church’s actions violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Texas Labor Code.
Byron Copeland is now an executive pastor at Cross Timbers Church.
In the Saturday evening service at Gateway Church, James and Bridget Morris were recognized by pastor Ben Pirtle. They received a standing ovation. James is the son of Robert Morris who announced that James would be taking over as senior pastor upon Robert’s retirement, which was originally planned for sometime next year. Gateway Church elders announced that three elders and James Morris would be taking a leave of absence. This leave is only from the board of Elders, not from their paid staff positions.
