Retrial Set for Word of Faith Leader Brooke Covington in North Carolina

A long-delayed assault and kidnapping case against a leader of a secretive North Carolina religious group is scheduled to return to court on Monday, more than nine years after her first trial ended without a verdict.

Brooke Covington, a leader of the Word of Faith Fellowship, was first tried in 2017 on charges of second-degree kidnapping and simple assault. Prosecutors alleged that she held down and beat a onetime member of the group more than 13 years ago. That trial ended in a mistrial after the jury foreman introduced his own research into deliberations. Covington has maintained her innocence.

Court records show the new trial is set to begin in Buncombe County. Neither the new prosecutor nor Covington's lawyer responded to messages seeking details about the proceedings.

The case has been repeatedly postponed. The COVID-19 pandemic, an effort to remove the original prosecutor that ended with the suspension of the requesting attorney's law license, the deaths or retirements of lawyers on both sides, and the transfer of the case to a new prosecutor in a different jurisdiction all contributed to the delay.

Matthew Fenner joined Word of Faith as a teenager in 2010 with his mother. He has said that during a service at the church's compound in Spindale, North Carolina, members including Covington began what the church called a "blasting" session on him. According to Fenner, members held him down and choked and beat him for two hours while others prayed to expel "homosexual demons."

Word of Faith is a nondenominational Protestant church founded in 1979 by Sam and Jane Whaley in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains between Charlotte and Asheville. Members consider Jane Whaley a prophet.

In 2017, a news organization published a series of stories about Word of Faith detailing former members' allegations of abuse. The outlet spoke with dozens of former congregants around the world, reviewed hours of secretly recorded conversations with church leaders, and examined hundreds of pages of law enforcement, court and child welfare documents.

Whaley has denied that she or other church leaders ever abused members, and has said any discipline would be protected by the Constitution's freedom of religion. The church has called the allegations false, describing them as the work of "certain former members" targeting the church, and has said it does not condone abuse.

The case was turned over to a special prosecutor after Fenner's lawyer accused District Attorney Ted Bell of siding with Word of Faith in his handling of it. Attorney Andrew LaBreche said Bell did not investigate new evidence or witnesses and made a deal to drop the felony kidnapping charge against Covington. Bell provided text messages and other evidence indicating he refused to talk to Word of Faith members when they tried to steer conversations toward the assault cases.

Superior Court Judge William Stetzer denied LaBreche's request to remove the prosecutor. In his order, the judge said LaBreche's "repeated acts of dishonesty and the significant harm to the legal profession" led him to suspend the attorney's law license for three years, and he awarded Bell legal fees. LaBreche is appealing the ruling, and his suspension has been delayed until his case can be heard.

Word of Faith had about 700 members in North Carolina a decade ago, but a sworn statement from a former church leader said membership has since dwindled to about 300 to 400 people.

The earlier reporting described the church as controlling almost every aspect of members' lives, including whom they married, what subjects they studied in school and whether they could attend college. It also said members were regularly slapped, choked and thrown to the floor during high-decibel group prayer, and that the church and its followers exerted influence over law enforcement and social services, preventing fair investigations.