A bench trial held March 12th concerning the failed sale of the Garnett First Baptist Church Parsonage by Pastor Daniel Meyer, led to an April 21st hearing to weigh Meyer’s motions to limit evidence former church members can produce in their defense of his lawsuit against them. The suit stems from former church members attaching an affidavit to the church parsonage deed at the County Registrar of Deeds office that stipulated Meyer had no right or authority to sell the property.
Meyer, functioning as the church’s legal agent, had negotiated the sale of the property in an effort to fund the struggling church’s finances. Meyer’s attorneys filed a motion in March in preparation for the scheduled trial before the judge, seeking to limit the types of evidence defendants could produce at trial, specifically “testimony and argument based on religious laws, rules and customs,” “character evidence and evidence of prior bad acts,” or that Meyer acted with fraudulent intent or in bad faith.
The lawsuit followed a two year division within the church, whose finances dramatically declined after membership evaporated under Meyer’s leadership.
