Supreme Court Rejects Governor’s Intervention

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News — CENTRAL — The Louisiana Supreme Court has thrown out a Motion to Intervene by Gov. John Bel Edwards in the criminal case against Rev. Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church in Central.

The court has before it a Motion to Quash by Pastor Spell to terminate the criminal charges against the pastor.  The governor had wanted to become a party in the case to help prosecute the pastor.  That is unheard of.

The first problem is that allowing the governor to become a party and help prosecute would violate separation of powers under Article II of the Louisiana Constitution.  In reality, what the governor proposed to the court is a legal impossibility under Louisiana law.

Even worse than the governor’s illegal Motion to Intervene was the fact the governor’s attorney signed the Motion to Intervene with the stamp of Attorney General Jeff Landry. It was the modern equivalent of forgery.

In fact, the Attorney General is on the other side of the case entirely.  He had filed an amicus brief in support of Pastor Spell!  The pastor says it was a clear attempt to mislead the Supreme Court and make it believe the Attorney General was supporting the governor.

That view was echoed by the Attorney General himself who filed an opposition with the court that denounced the governor’s signing the Attorney General’s Motion to Intervene as an attempt to intentionally mislead the court. “It was not an accident,” AG Jeff Landry said.

Gov. John Bel Edwards filed his Motion to Intervene in the Louisiana Supreme Court on Jan. 18.  

Under the Louisiana Constitution, only the Attorney General can intervene in a criminal case and then only by invitation of the local District Attorney. But the governor had a trick up his sleeve.  His attorney forged the name of the Attorney General to the Motion to Intervene! But the AG never gave the governor permission to use his name.  In fact, it had happened before, and the governor’s lawyers had been warned not to do it again.

Ironically, it was Edwards who wrote the “law” that Spell is accused of violating. He did so by issuing an emergency order forbidding pastors from holding church services. [Never mind the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution!] 

Rev. Spell held services anyway, and the governor had Central police chief Roger Corcoran arrest him.  He was charged with violating the governor’s order not to hold church — an order without parallel in American history!

Rev. Spell and his grandfather, the late Bishop Bervick A. Spell have pastored the church for 63 years.  In March 2020, when Edwards ordered churches closed, Rev. Spell continued holding church.  Shortly thereafter, he was arrested, taken to parish prison, released on bail, fitted with an ankle bracelet, placed under house arrest, and threatened by the judge that he would be thrown into parish jail for months if he continued to try to preach in his church.  Of course, the pastor did just that!  He went to church and preached again.  Just as law enforcement was about to move in and arrest him again, there was a shooting in another part of town and an officer was killed.  The judge was told this shooting could result in protestors coming from around the country.  So instead of putting Pastor Spell in jail, the judge said he would not put him in jail because it would endanger inmates in the parish prison to have the pastor there!

The pastor’s Motion to Quash the charges has been working its way through the courts for nearly two years. Pastor Spell has never been tried in the case, but has nevertheless been treated as a criminal.  He and his wife have been followed by unmarked government vehicles, his home surveilled 24 hours a day by government cameras, and he has been forbidden from leaving the state without the judge’s permission.

The Louisiana Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on the Motion to Quash on March 22 in New Orleans.  If the pastor prevails with that motion, the criminal case will be at an end.  If not, it could go back to district court under Judge Eboni Johnson-Rose for trial. Rev. Spell is asking citizens to attend the Supreme Court hearing on Mar. 22.

The effort by Gov. John Bel Edwards to intervene in the prosecution of Pastor Spell and the use the Attorney General’s signature on the Motion to Intervene has been cited by some legislators as a possible Article of Impeachment in the case against Gov. John Bel Edwards.