Category: Word of Faith Fellowship

SHELBY — The owner of a cosmetics company with ties to leaders of the Word of Faith Fellowship was in bankruptcy court last week. Leigh Valentine owns Integrity Development and Valentine Spa, both operated out of an office on Shiloh Road. Valentine, who lives in Rutherfordton, filed for personal bankruptcy in June and was in Shelby last week answering ques­tions of a bankruptcy trustee and attorneys for creditors. Public records from the bankruptcy filing reveal some of Valentine’s ties to the Spindale-based WOFF. WOFF leadership are listed as both creditors of Valentine’s and in paperwork related to her assets. Valentine’s

FOREST CITY — A request by several Word Of Faith Fellowship members to have legal fees reimbursed by the Department of Social Services has been denied. Kent and Brooke Covington had requested approximately $300,000 in legal fees of theirs and those of Sarah and Rachael Almanie be reimbursed after a DSS custody action involving the Almanies was overturned by the North Carolina Court of Appeals. In October of 2003, DSS won a ruling that removed the Almanie sisters and their two brothers from Covington’s home. The ruling indicated that the WOFF, for which the Covingtons serve as ministers, created an

RUTHERFORDTON –The ongoing saga of former Word of Faith Fellowship member Shana Muse continued Tuesday as District Court Judge Athena Brooks ruled that Muse was in contempt of a visitation agreement. Muse was in court this week after the WOFF couple, who now have custody of her two male children, claimed she violated court orders after a recent alleged incident in Charlotte. Brooke and Kent Covington, WOFF ministers, accused Muse in a civil case of violating a standing custody agreement after Muse was arrested and charged with simple assault and battery and misdemeanor assault on a child under the age

FOREST CITY — Former Word of Faith Fellowship member Shana Muse was acquitted of any criminal wrongdoing in an alleged incident involving her children and current WOFF members. She was cleared of two misdemeanor charges during a district court trial in Mecklenburg County last week. Muse’s four children are in the custody of a couple, who are ministers in the controversial Spindale-based church, where two of her sisters are also members. Muse was accused by the couple, Kent and Brooke Covington, and one of her sisters of simple assault and battery and misdemeanor child abuse during a visitation in Charlotte,

SPINDALE — Attorneys representing Sarah and Rachael Almanie and WOFF ministers Kent and Brooke Covington and are requesting reimbursement for their clients of $273,000 in legal expenses. The motion involves legal proceedings not including the federal case for which a settlement was reached including the original Rutherford County Department of Social Services suit to remove the Muse children from the Covington home, the appeal of the case and the emancipation proceedings for the two Almanie girls. The DSS case was overturned on appeal and the Almanie’s attorney Philip Roth stated in the motion that because of that ruling his clients

SPINDALE — A federal lawsuit filed by the Word of Faith Fellowship against the county’s social service agency has been settled with $305,000 going to WOFF and prior records of child abuse investigations being expunged from the record. A WOFF attorney called the ruling vindication, while the Rutherford County Department of Social Services officials said the settlement avoided hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal expenses as they denied any wrongdoing. The originating lawsuit sought over $2 million and multiple items of injunctive relief regarding DSS investigations of WOFF. During the past 10 years — and particularly in 2002 and

RUTHERFORDTON — The mother of three minor children was found in criminal contempt of a court order after she allowed the children to participate in a controversial prayer practice at the Word of Faith Fellowship. In a December 2000 court ruling, a judge found the practice of strong prayer or blasting to be harmful to the children and ordered it stopped, but left the children in the church with the mother, Pam Sharpe. Word of Faith Fellowship The Word of Faith Fellowship is an abusive church. Its teachings and practices fall so far outside those of normal, Biblical Christianity, that