"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32
"Am I the only one who sees the irony of what has happened here tonight? We have one group of sinners trying to kick another group of sinners out of the very place where we are trying to invite all sinners to attend.”
Comment overhead at 05/01 meeting at TRBC
May 12 WKRN Report (Watch how he counts the votes in the video)
See WSMV Video By Clicking On The Photo Above (Note: Large File - Please be Patient)
Defendant Personal Affidavits Related to the Lawsuit
Affidavit of Scott Hutchings (95 KB)
This is an affidavit from Scott Hutchings swearing to the accuracy of Jerry Sutton's salary information (view salary info here). This affidavit shows actual payroll information on several ministers. A couple of things about this provided data are cause for concern including Jerry Sutton's $80,000 per year tax free housing allowance (at least the church is not withholding income tax on this amount) along with no Social Security or Medicare tax being withheld. Clergy are basically the only people in America who can "opt out" of payroll taxes. Since Social Security has been determined by the Supreme Court of the United States not to be an insurance plan but a social welfare plan provided by the government, the decision for clergy to get out of Social Security must be a "conscientious objection to government welfare" based on their "religious beliefs". Read an article on this subject produced by Crown Financial Ministries here.
Affidavit of Church Leadership (396 KB)
Sworn statements from the current Trustees and Treasurer concerning the church's finances. They say that everything is just fine.
Affidavit of Bobby Reed (33 KB)
Mr. Reed, the interim Treasurer hand picked by Jerry Sutton, says that the church has provided all documents required by the court and that the church's software cannot produce any more detailed reports than what has been provided.
Affidavit of Ashley Clayton (20 KB)
Mr. Clayton disputes Ms. Lyon's responsibilities and basically says that she was just a low level, former Administrative Assistant with no real authority to question any expenditures.
Affidavit of Jerry Sutton (92 KB)
Jerry Sutton disputes all accusations in this affidavit. He states that his Administrative Assistant, Kathy Lyon, was terminated from her position in 2004 due to "poor performance" and "disruptive behavior". Never mind that she was employed from 1998 - 2004, a period of six years in which her performance and behavior must have been adequate during that time. Otherwise, why wasn't she terminated before six years went by? Just 3 weeks before her dismissal for "poor performance", Jerry Sutton wrote a glowing letter praising her for her wonderful work. This letter was read to the entire Pastor's Administrative Assistant's Conference at First Baptist Church of Austin, TX which Kathy was attending and which was paid for by TRBC (Jerry denies she was ever at a conference - see the plane ticket receipt for Kathy here). Yet 3 weeks later, she was terminated by Jerry for "poor performance" according to his affidavit above.
In the letter below, Jerry starts out by saying "I hope that you are enjoying your conference in Texas." before heaping praise on Ms. Lyon. Jerry, when questioned about this discrepancy, claimed that this was only a letter of recommendation and was hand delivered by him to her 3 WEEKS AFTER SHE WAS TERMINATED. She was terminated on 05/20/04. This letter is dated 04/28/04.
Additional commentary on this issue was made at a later date by Jerry and is outlined here. You be the judge on who is telling the truth.
Jerry Sutton further says that he had permission to use Ms. Lyon to type his book which is in direct opposition to what the Treasurer at the time, Ken Jones, stated in his affidavit. Jerry Sutton claims that he paid Ms. Lyon a check of $1500 for her assistance in typing his book because he wanted to be "above reproach". If the Senior Pastor only paid Ms. Lyon $1500 to type a 560 page book, including all of the corrections, drafts, revisions, etc, it seems unlikely that she did this in her "spare time" and not on church time. Jerry Sutton goes on to justify his use of church credit cards for purchases of meals, books, coffee, etc. Keep in mind church members that all of this was happening while the church has continued to struggle financially. How can anyone call this good leadership? How can anyone call this other than what it is - poor stewardship and poor management!
(95 KB)