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Former Lodi-area pastor Malvitz sued in Sacramento
NOTE: Lodi Pastor / University Professor Mark Malvitz-Ellis Ph.D. defeats ‘superlawyer’ — A further call for ethical practices in the legal profession: “The propaganda filled lawsuit abruptly ended with Attorney Glenn Peterson shamed with fines and sanctions by the Superior Court of Sacramento, California. Peterson’s bogus information sources were two individuals, Alton Mead and Mario Sebastian, who were dismissed from employment due to extreme moral failure at the ministry where Malvitz-Ellis was the Senior Pastor in the mid 90′s.”
A former Lodi pastor with a checkered past has surfaced in Sacramento County, where he is being sued by eight former members of his Orangevale congregation amid allegations of spiritual abuse, fraud and identity theft.
Mark J. Malvitz, a pastor in Lodi, Morada and Stockton during the 1990s before leaving San Joaquin County in disgrace, has emerged in Orangevale, a Sacramento suburb, where he is pastor of Church on the Rock and operates a preschool on the same grounds.
In the Sacramento lawsuit, attorney Glenn Peterson said he is seeking a restraining order precluding Malvitz and his wife from practicing his ministry anywhere in California.
Peterson said he isn’t asking the court to shut down the Orangevale church and preschool if they are operated by someone else.
Malvitz’s history in the Lodi area goes back to at least the early 1990s, when he was a pastor of churches under several names and locations.
“He acted like a good preacher, and he acted like a good shepherd,” said a Stockton resident who asked to not be named. “He fooled everybody. He put on a hell of a show.”
Malvitz pleaded no contest in 1996 to disturbing the peace in a case involving Lodi Dr. Gary Wisner. Malvitz was also evicted from a residence on Morada Lane in 1996 and filed for bankruptcy the previous year, claiming to be almost $400,000 in debt.
He founded New Life Center on Rimby Avenue, northwest of Hutchins Street and Kettleman Lane, in 1989. It was later named New Life Christian Center and moved to 4111 N. West Lane in Stockton, and then Resurrection Christian Church in Morada, on the eastern frontage road off Highway 99 next to the Pollardville-Chicken Kitchen.
News coverage of Malvitz in the 1990s included several incidents:
� Being ordered by the California Labor Commission in 1994 to pay a former employee $900 in back wages.
� Filing a bankruptcy claim of almost $400,000 in March 1995.
� Being investigated by Stockton police of a report of hitting a member of the Morada church. According to a 1995 police report, Malvitz acknowledged that he had hit and kicked the church member “and may have kicked him in the groin” while engaged in horseplay.
Charges were not filed due to lack of evidence.
� Morada Christian Academy, which Malvitz operated, being cited in early 1996 by the California Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing Bureau on the grounds that the K-12 academy was unlicensed by the state.
� Stockton Municipal Court ordering Malvitz and employees Jason J. Daniel, Jill Daniel and Daniel B. Navarra to pay $4,250 in rent and damages after being evicted from a residence on East Morada Lane in 1996.
� Malvitz pleading no contest in early 1997 in Lodi Municipal Court to disturbing the peace, an infraction that carried a maximum fine of $250.
The no-contest plea stems from an incident on Oct. 9, 1996, when Malvitz allegedly threatened Wisner and a medical assistant while briefly holding the door to the examination room closed when Malvitz was about to be treated for a broken hand, according to court testimony. The incident took place at Wisner’s office on South Ham Lane in Lodi.
Since filing an Oct. 10, 1996 complaint against Malvitz with the Lodi Police, Wisner said at the time he had received several blackmail and personal threats from Malvitz and his staff.
� In May 1997, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department announced that Malvitz, Daniel and Navarra had disappeared.
� Since 1991, Malvitz was served several liens by the Internal Revenue Service for allegedly failing to turn over federal employee taxes.
Peterson, attorney for his eight clients suing Malvitz this year in Sacramento, says that Malvitz used the same tactics at his Orangevale church as he did in the Lodi-Stockton area several years ago, such as intimidation and using information that was shared to him by church members in a confidential setting.
“Spiritual abuse,” Peterson said, includes saying things like, “I’m doing God’s work, and if you don’t do what I say, you won’t have God’s grace.”
Malvitz and his wife, Martha Ann Malvitz, are accused in the Sacramento lawsuit of several acts. They include:
� Using money donated by the eight plaintiffs to make mortgage payments on his mother’s real property.
� Selling an organ donated to the Church on the Rock for his own use.
� Using funds contributed to the church to subsidize Cuddle Bug Day Care Center, located on the church property.
� Not organizing the church so that contributions would be tax deductible.
� Falsely advertising on the Internet a “bogus, unlicensed and unregulated college,” including a school of divinity and school of law.
� Using the plaintiffs’ Social Security and credit card numbers.
Peterson, the plaintiffs’ attorney, declined to state how much money his clients lost, but he said it’s more than $50,000.
Malvitz was not available for comment Wednesday. Peterson said he doesn’t know yet who Malvitz’s attorney is.
The lawsuit was filed May 5 and served on Malvitz the following night just before giving his sermon for his Thursday night service.
Peterson questions the existence of Dominion College, although Malvitz advertises it prominently on his Web site. The college, which Malvitz claims to operate, reportedly has schools of business, divinity, law and leadership.
“As far as I know, it only exists in cyberspace,” Peterson said. “The Web site indicates that physical college building exists somewhere in Northern California.
“Mostly what they’re trying to get you to do pay your fees online.”
No address is listed for Dominion College, nor does the Sacramento phone book have a listing for the church or preschool, located at 6035 Main Ave., Orangevale.
The plaintiffs in the Sacramento case are listed as Steve Presson, Sylvia E. McLain, Deborah Wilson, Carl Vom Cleff, Bonnie Vom Cleff, David Coan, Joan Coan and Debra Stamey.
Malvitz is also known as Mark Jarid Malvitz, Mark J. Malvitz-Ellis and Mark Jarid Ellis Malvitz, according to the lawsuit.
Also named are Church on the Rock, Resurrection Christian Center, Cuddle Bug Preschool and Daycare, Resurrection World Ministry Center, Inc., International Fellowship of Ministries, Inc., and Dominion College.
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