Lawyers for the Assemblies of God, the world's largest Pentecostal denomination, have asked a Texas District Court Judge to quash a pending deposition of the organization's General Superintendent and CEO Doug Clay in the ongoing Chi Alpha Campus Ministries lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two men identified only as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 in March 2024, names as defendants: The General Council of the Assemblies of God, the South Texas District Council Assemblies of God, Inc., Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, U.S.A., and Chi Alpha Campus Ministries Huntsville.
Attorneys for the two men allege they were sexually abused by itinerant minister, known predator and convicted sex offender Daniel Savala, while they participated in the Assemblies of God-sponsored college ministry, which is on 300 campuses globally.
The plaintiffs' attorneys, Anjali Nigam and Jill Herz, filed a notice last Monday of their intent to depose Clay on Oct. 3. Brian D. Hensley, the denomination's attorney, filed a supplemental motion last Tuesday to quash that plan and asked the court to issue a protective order blocking Clay's deposition pursuant to Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 192.6(a) because he doesn't have "personal knowedge" regarding the day-to-day workings of the plaintiff entities.
"Defendant seeks a protective order from the Court ordering that Defendant is not required to present Doug Clay for an Apex deposition. Defendant notified Plaintiffs' counsel that this deposition was an Apex deposition. However, Plaintiffs' counsel does not agree," wrote Hensley. "While the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure allow a party to take the deposition of 'any person,' the person noticed for deposition has a right of protection 'from undue burden, unnecessary expenses, harassment or annoyance, or invasion of personal, constitutional, or property rights.'"
An apex deposition refers to the deposition of a high-ranking corporate or government official. To conduct this deposition, attorneys for the John Does must show that Clay has unique personal knowledge of the case's material facts and that all less intrusive means of discovery, such as deposing lower-level employees, have been exhausted.
Nigam and Hertz are also seeking to depose Assemblies of God General Secretary Donna Barrett and Scott Martin, who resigned in 2023 as national director of Chi Alpha World Fellowship. The denomination also sought to quash their depositions in multiple filings.
For both Barrett and Martin, the Assemblies of God has disputed the scheduling of the depositions and further noted that they also have no authority to direct Martin to attend the deposition because he is no longer an employee.
The motions come as the Assemblies of God has failed to comply with repeated orders from the court to turn over requested records to the plaintiffs' attorneys to facilitate a thorough discovery process.
"While Defendant The General Council of the Assemblies of God publicly proclaims it is being transparent and forthright with what it learns about this sex abuse scandal, its actions in this Court are the exact opposite," the attorneys allege in one court filing.
"In total contradiction to what the discovery rules and this Court require, this Defendant is purposely stopping Plaintiffs from discovering the truth by concealing the facts. Telling is that this Court, after hearing sworn testimony about the document production, described Defendant The General Council of the Assemblies of God's discovery abuse as 'a flagrant dismissal of this Court's order.'"
Both plaintiffs, including one man who is legally blind, allege they suffered significant sexual abuse from the now 69-year-old Daniel Savala while they participated in Chi Alpha.
Savala was arrested in Waco in June 2023 for allegedly sexually abusing the minor sons of one of his protégés in the ministry. John Doe 1, who has been legally blind since birth, filed a $1 million lawsuit alleging that Savala sexually abused him while he was a Sam Houston State University student.
"Defendant General Council of the Assemblies of God, Defendant South Texas District Council Assemblies of God, Defendant Chi Alpha USA, and Defendant Chi Alpha Huntsville actively sought out the students at Sam Houston State University, including Plaintiffs John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, because such recruiting benefitted all Defendants," the plaintiff's attorneys allege in a March 2024 filing.
"Defendants actively sought out these students because they knowingly benefited not just financial benefit, but also because the students increased the church's membership base and increased the ability to conduct mission work. These students helped increase the Defendants' influence across the country; this influence is something highly desired by and beneficial to the Defendants."
John Doe 1, who began attending Sam Houston State University in 2013 and continued as a graduate student after completing his graduate studies, alleges that even though some Chi Alpha ministry leaders witnessed Savala engaging in sexual assaults and were aware of his history as a predator, they still brought he and others from religious groups across the state to Savala's house for mission work.
As a result of his disability, John Doe 1 depended on others, including Savala, to drive him to Savala's house for the alleged mission trips.
In the fall of 2017, however, Savala began sexually abusing John Doe 1, "using language from the Bible" to get him to cooperate in the abuse, which included masturbation and penetrative sex.
"This sexual abuse continued through 2022. Over the years, the sexual abuse became worse and worse," the attorneys allege.
John Doe 2, who began attending Sam Houston State University in 2009, shared a similar story of abuse and how he was lured into unknowingly trusting a sexual predator.
"This sexual abuse [of John Doe 2] continued through 2015. Over the years, the sexual abuse became worse and worse. In 2016, John Doe 2 was told about Savala's past misdeeds, his pedophilia and being on the registered sex offenders list. For the first time, Doe 2 realized he had been sexually abused. He then anonymously filed a Title IX complaint with Sam Houston State University."
In their proposal for sanctions against the Assemblies of God for failing to provide the requested records in the discovery process, Nigam and Herz asked Judge Lauren Reeder in an Aug. 26 filing to order the jury in the case to be instructed to infer from the evidence that the denomination benefited from sex trafficking.
"Since the Defendant The General Council of the Assemblies of God hid documents, the jury can infer Defendant The General Council of the Assemblies of God knowingly benefitted from a sex trafficking venture of Plaintiffs," the filing proposes. "Since the Defendant The General Council of the Assemblies of God hid documents, the jury can infer Defendant The General Council of the Assemblies of God knew Daniel Savala was a sexual predator as early as 2012 and did nothing to stop or warn Plaintiffs from being sent to Daniel Savala."
The attorneys further suggest that: "Since the Defendant The General Council of the Assemblies of God hid documents, the jury can infer Defendant The General Council of the Assemblies of God knew Daniel Savala was a sexual predator even earlier than 2012 and did nothing to stop or warn children and young men from being sent to Daniel Savala."
When asked why the Assemblies of God failed to abide by Reeders' order on the discovery process, and about the proposal, Mark Forrester, chief communications officer of the Assemblies of God's national office, noted that the allegations in the proposal are not "statements of fact."
"We must caution against drawing conclusions based on motions or proposed orders drafted by a plaintiff's attorney which are not statements of fact," Forrester said in part in an email response to The Christian Post.
According to court records, Savala had a long history of involvement with the defendants beginning as early as 1980. He reportedly served as a counselor at the General Council of the Assemblies of God and South Texas District Council Assemblies of God's camp in Kerrville, Texas. He was also identified in the University of Louisiana–Lafayette yearbook as a Chi Alpha staff member in 1989. From approximately 1995 to 1997, Savala also served as youth pastor at Clover Pass Community Church in Ketchikan, Alaska, where former Assemblies of God pastor Eli Stewart was a member of his youth group.
Texas' sex offender registry records show that Savala was charged in 2012 for sexual abuse of a minor, a third-degree felony, which he committed in Alaska between 1995 and 1997.
