DENVER (AP) - The Colorado Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court ruling in a dispute over the dismissal of a pastor of the oldest African-American church in El Paso County.
The appeals court said an El Paso County district judge had no authority to bar then-Senior Pastor Willie J. Sutton Jr. from entering St. John’s Baptist Church property or to rule that a group within the church, called the Governing Body, controlled the church property.
The appeals court ordered the district court to reconsider the property question.
The Governing Body plans to appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, said its attorney, Edward Hopkins Jr.
Sutton said he would not move quickly to return to the church and would seek legal advice. He said the ruling was not a reason for “gloating.”
“I think in situations like this, there really aren’t any winners,” Sutton said, adding that the venerable church’s reputation had been hurt. “Why would somebody want to come to church or come to Christ when they look at what we’ve been through?” he said.
The church released a statement Thursday saying the October 2011 vote to dismiss Sutton as pastor was valid. It said the congregation later voted to revoke Sutton’s membership.
The church hired Sutton as pastor in 2008. He said critics later accused him of financial impropriety, an allegation he denies.
The appeals court opinion noted that in the 2011 vote, 35 of the church’s approximately 100 members met, and 31 voted to dismiss Sutton. The opinion said “it appears that church leadership did not find that vote legitimate” and that Sutton remained in his role.
Hopkins - who said he represents the church as well as the Governing Body - said church documents show it was a valid vote.
The Governing Body was formed about four months after the vote for “investigating matters on behalf of the church, interpreting and adjudicating (church disputes), and bringing civil actions against those who harmed the church,” according to court documents.
The Governing Body filed suit in district court, asking the judge to rule that Sutton did not represent the church’s legal interest and that Sutton and others could not enter the church without the Governing Body’s permission.
Sutton didn’t respond to the lawsuit, and the district judge ruled in the Governing Body’s favor. He later appealed.
Sutton said police arrived at the church on a weekday after the district court ruling, when he was in church offices, and ordered him to leave. Sutton said he did so voluntarily.
Sutton and others formed another church, called the Original St. John’s Baptist Church, said Adam L. Weitzel, Sutton’s attorney. Sutton said about 30 people have been regularly attending services of the new church at a Colorado Springs hotel, and he planned to preach there this weekend.
The appeals court opinion said the district judge’s order for Sutton to stay out of the church without permission was “a de facto determination regarding the church’s chosen pastor,” and that violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
“The court made a decision regarding ecclesiastical internal governance and organization; it determined for the church who represented its interest, a governing decision belonging only to the church,” the opinion said.
The appeals court also said the Governing Body didn’t show in its lawsuit that it was authorized to act on the church’s behalf.
Hopkins said the Governing Body is a legally separate entity from the church but that at the time of the lawsuit had the church’s authorization to act.
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