Pastor, former SBC seminary prof. charged in DOJ investigation says he is ‘not guilty’
Former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary evangelism professor and interim provost Matthew Queen says he is not guilty as he faces one count of records falsification in connection with a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention, and said he seeks vindication from both “God and man.”
“I fully cooperated with this investigation and have pleaded not guilty to the charge against me. As a Christian, a (former) seminary professor, and now a pastor, my integrity is everything to me and I will cling to that integrity and seek to be vindicated by God and man,” Queen, 49, said in a statement to The Tennessean.
The pastor, who has been placed on administrative leave from his job at Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, pending the completion of the legal process, is facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if he is found guilty.
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Queen was charged last month, nearly two years after the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation into the SBC and its affiliate entities following the release of a Guidepost Solutions report showing leaders failed to protect victims of abuse.
The charge against Queen stems from a November 2022 report of an alleged sexual abuse committed by a Texas Baptist College student, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary said in a statement on May 21. Seminary officials noted that they later helped facilitate the arrest of the student who went on to withdraw from the college.
Before the sexual abuse allegation in November 2022, however, the Justice Department issued a grand jury subpoena to the seminary in October 2022, which required the seminary to produce all documents in the seminary's possession related to allegations of sexual abuse against anyone employed by or associated with the seminary, among other things.
In November 2022, the DOJ noted, a seminary employee identified as Employee-1, now revealed by the seminary to be Terri Stovall, dean of women, interim associate dean in the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries and professor of educational ministries, received a report alleging that a current seminary student committed sexual abuse. Stovall notified campus police and no further action was taken. The allegation was not reported to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Stovall reportedly documented the allegation in January 2023 and the seminary's failed response. On Jan. 26, 2023, she then met with Queen and another executive staff member of the seminary identified as Employee-2 by the DOJ and confirmed by the seminary as their former chief of staff, Heath Woolman, who is now lead pastor of Fruit Cove Baptist Church in St. Johns, Florida.
"During that meeting, and in QUEEN's presence, Employee-2 directed Employee-1, in sum and substance, to destroy the document," the Justice Department's statement contends.
In May 2023, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI interviewed Queen, who "falsely stated that he had not heard Employee-2 direct Employee-1 to destroy the document."
Three days after his interview with investigators, Queen told another seminary employee, identified as Employee-3, that he found a notebook in his office with contemporaneous notes of the Jan. 26, 2023, meeting.
"The notes falsely stated that during the January 26, 2023, meeting, Employee-2, and Employee-1 merely discussed providing the Document to a different department at the Seminary and omitted the fact that Employee-2 had directed Employee-1 to destroy the Document. Queen provided the falsified notes to Employee-2 to produce in response to the grand jury subpoena," the DOJ said.
Authorities say Queen made other false declarations to investigators about the meeting until June 21, 2023, when he "testified under oath that he had in fact heard Employee-2 direct Employee-1 to make the document 'go away.'"
“During my employment at the seminary, I was present during a conversation of interest to investigators and was interviewed about my recollection of that conversation. Prosecutors believe I misrepresented that conversation, and my notes about my recollection of that conversation, during my interview with them and indicted me for ‘obstruction of justice,” Queen said in his statement, noting that he will not publicly discuss the matter again until after the case is resolved.
“I covet your prayers for me and my family,” he added.
Sam A. Schmidt, Queen’s attorney, told the newspaper that his client was "unaware of the allegation made against the student in November 2022 until January 24, 2023, after the arrest of the student by the Burleson Police Department earlier that day."
“The meeting alleged in the accusation, occurred on January 26, 2023. The meeting was scheduled to discuss a matter not having to do with the document that Employee 1 created,” Schmidt said. “The notes prepared by Dr. Queen cited in the accusation were true to his best recollection and did not contain false information. Dr. Queen testified truthfully before the Grand Jury.”
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President David S. Dockery, who was installed as president of the Fort Worth, Texas-based seminary last August, said in a statement that both Woolman and Queen misrepresented the facts of the investigation to him.
"In a follow-up conversation concerning what was said to Stovall, Woolman provided me assurance that he did not instruct her to make the document 'go away.' Queen, for his part, acknowledged to me on more than one occasion that he did not hear Woolman instruct Stovall to make the document 'go away,'" Dockery said.
"For nearly five months we operated within the tension of knowing that employees in whom we had confidence had differences of recollection regarding the January conversation. However, in June 2023, Queen claimed that he now recalled hearing the directive related to the document and also provided additional information that led to the decision for him to resign as interim provost and to be placed on administrative leave."
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