Reporting the Truth.
Restoring the Church.
By Rebecca Hopkins
Newly released video shows pastor Tony Spell beating a 20-year-old neighbor. (Screen grab)
A Louisiana pastor known for defying governmental COVID-19 lockdowns was arrested for assaulting a young man near his church Tuesday — an assault caught on video.
Mark Anthony “Tony” Spell, 48, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, was arrested Tuesday on a felony second-degree battery charge. Life Tabernacle is a Oneness Pentecostal church in Central, 14 miles northeast of Baton Rouge.
Videos released by WAFB-TV Ch. 9, a Baton Rouge CBS affiliate, show Spell crossing the street and into the yard of the 20-year-old neighbor.
A video shows the neighbor swung at Spell first, about three times. Then Spell punched the man six times, threw him to the ground, and punched him another 26 times, while the man tried to protect his head. Spell sat on top of him, jerked his neck up and twisted it, then stood up and kicked him.
Scott Sherwin, the victim’s father, told WAFB that he and the Spells have been feuding.Life Tabernacle Church in Central, Louisiana, where pastor Tony Spell drew national attention for defying COVID-19 lockdown orders. Spell was arrested this week on a felony battery charge. (Photo courtesy of Facebook)
According to a probable cause affidavit from the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, the victim likely has a broken orbital bone above his eye and needed stitches on his chin.
Although Spell didn’t respond to a request for comment from Roys Report (RR), he later said at a press conference that he was trying to protect his family and congregation from a threatening neighbor.
‘I’m going to rape your wife’
Spell was cited by Christianity Today as the first pastor in the country to publicly defy pandemic lockdown orders by holding services. In March 2020, Central police arrested him on six misdemeanor counts of violating the governor’s orders, WAFB reported at the time. But he and Life Tabernacle sued the Louisiana governor, mayors of Baton Rouge and Central, the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff and the Central police chief for violating their religious liberties. Spell won in May 2022 when the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled against the governor.
This week’s incident was not the first time Spell was arrested for assault. Spell allegedly backed a bus toward a man who was protesting the church’s decision to stay open during the pandemic, WAFB reported in April 2020. The incident was caught on video. Charges in that case were dismissed in 2022, WAFB reported.Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church near Baton Rouge, was arrested on a felony second-degree battery charge. (Photo courtesy of East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office)
Spell posted a $25,000 bond on Tuesday, according to WVLA-TV Ch. 33, a Baton Rouge station affiliated with NBC. On Wednesday, Spell held a press conference with his attorney. Spell said he was working on a bus in the church parking lot when the neighbor from across the street threatened to harm his family.
“He said, ‘Tony, I’m gonna rape your wife. I’m gonna rape all your grandchildren,’” Spell said at the press conference. “He said, ‘The next time you go out of town, I’m going to kill them. And what the F are you going to do about it?’”
The affidavit stated the victim yelled a profanity at Spell but didn’t mention the alleged threats.
The victim screamed, “F— you!” and “that was it,” the police affidavit states.
RR was unable to find accurate contact information for the victim for comment.
But the victim’s father, Scott Sherwin, told Baton Rouge investigative journalist Kiran Chawla of Unfiltered with Kiran (UWK) that Spell has threatened him. Sherwin said he plans to file a protective order.
“We have had threats from Pastor Spell to physically hurt me and my wife,” Sherwin told Chawla, a former WAFB reporter.
Spell, surrounded by church members at his press conference Wednesday, said he was just trying to protect his family.
“I have an obligation and a duty to protect life, liberty, threats of bodily harm,” Spell said. “So, to the people that think this was a bridge too far … this will be determined in a court of law.”
Sherwin told UWK that the accusations that his son started the altercation are false.
“Pastor Spell has a habit of not telling the truth in an attempt to shift the narrative into his direction,” Sherwin said. “He’s a professional at playing the victim.”
WAFB filmed Spell as he walked out of the East Baton Rouge parish jail on Tuesday, then hugged his wife.
“The truth will come out in court,” Spell told WAFB.
Then Spell added, “I’m heading to the pulpit now. I’ve got a red-hot sermon ready.”
In the church service that night, he said, “Domestic terrorism is tolerated in our day.” He also said Mark 16:18 had been fulfilled.Pastor Tony Spell preaches a sermon titled “What It Means to Be a Man” at Life Tabernacle Church following his arrest, telling members he had a “red-hot sermon ready” and casting himself as a victim of “domestic terrorism.” (Screen grab)
“In my name, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover,” Spell said, quoting the verse. “I laid hands on the sick. I don’t know how much recovery they’re going to have, but I laid hands on the sick.”
A history of tensions
In April 2020, Scott Sherwin gave an on-camera interview to French media, criticizing the church’s services during COVID. Sherwin’s interview with the unnamed French outlet was dubbed into French, making Sherwin’s comments difficult to hear. But Central City News (CCN), a newspaper based in Central, linked to the interview and translated it for its June 2022 edition.
In the interview, Sherwin can be heard complaining about Life Tabernacle members going from church to the grocery store, contaminating stores with coronavirus germs.
Spell said during the pandemic that the virus was a scam that would help Joe Biden steal the presidential election, Christianity Today reported in May 2022. He also instructed church members not to get COVID-19 vaccines.
Sherwin, whose property is across the street from the church, told the French outlet that federal agents set up video cameras there to surveil Life Tabernacle.
The CCN’s translation from the dubbed French says that Sherwin made what seemed like a physical threat against the church.
“You know what I really think?” states the translation. “If I had a Kalashnikov—.”
“Scott, stop!” Sherwin’s wife interrupts him, according to the translation. “Be quiet!”
A Kalashnikov is an assault rifle.
RR couldn’t hear this part of the interview in English to confirm this because of the French dubbing.
CCN accused Sherwin June 25 of “domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” It also posted a link to a legal defense fund to benefit Spell. Woody Jenkins, the CCN editor, also posted in an introduction to a video of Life Tabernacle’s Tuesday service that police haven’t taken action when the Spells reported past threats.
Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran says that Jenkins is not credible.
“Woody Jenkins is a coward that hides behind a keyboard,” Corcoran told WBRZ-TV Ch. 2, an ABC affiliate in Baton Rouge.
At his press conference Wednesday, Spell said church members in his ethnically diverse church have made “numerous complaints” to the police and sheriff’s office because of threats the Sherwins made.
“They are constantly intimidated with threats of bodily harm,” Spell said. “It’s the job of the shepherd to protect his sheep.”
At the press conference, Spell’s attorney, Jeff Wittenbrink, also blamed the police and sheriff for allowing tensions to go unresolved for years.
“It’s sad that we’ve had a failure in law enforcement and it may be that there’s a gap in the law,” Wittenbrink said.
Wittenbrink also accused the police department of cooperating with the Sherwins to surveil the Spells.
“We also know that the Central city police are friends with these folks across the street,” Wittenbrink said. “Every man has his limits … All these folks want to go to church in peace.”
But local law enforcement denies any failure on their part. Casey Rayborn Hicks, public information director of the East Baton Rouge sheriff’s office, told RR that the sheriff has received no reports of threats.
The Central Police Department used its Facebook page to defend its own work. Corcoran wrote that Central police received only one complaint from the Spells against their neighbors in the last five years.
Through a public information request, RR obtained a copy of the report. Shaye Spell, Tony’s wife, filed a complaint on March 8 about two road rage incidents alleging Scott Sherwin’s son showed his middle finger to Shaye. No one was ticketed or summoned due to no probable cause, the report stated.
Corcoran said he welcomes an audit to prove the department’s proper conduct. “If dates and times complaints were allegedly made are provided to me, I will order an audit of our systems to investigate any claim of a failure to investigate,” he said.
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.
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