Pastor Matthew Queen pleads guilty to making false statement to DOJ, FBI

Matthew Queen, a North Carolina pastor and former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary evangelism professor and interim provost, who pleaded not guilty earlier this summer to one count of records falsification in connection with a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention, has made an about turn and has now pleaded guilty to making a false statement.

Queen pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement weeks before he was expected to go on trial in the U.S. Southern District of New York on Nov. 13, the Tennessean reported. The crime carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison, but the pastor’s attorney, Sam Schmidt, believes the judge will recommend a sentence of several months.

At the time he was charged, Queen was placed on administrative leave from his job at Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, pending the completion of the legal process. The church no longer lists a staff page.

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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 its 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 had committed sexual abuse. Stovall notified campus police, and no further action was taken. The allegation wasn't 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.'"

Schmidt said Queen was originally charged with obstruction of justice, but he was allowed to plead guilty to a false statement.

"It was the government’s choice to first charge him with obstruction of justice," Schmidt said. "Then it was the government’s choice to allow a plea to a false statement."