Former Southern Baptist professor charged with falsifying records to help cover up a sexual assault allegation
A former Southern Baptist professor has been accused by the Department of Justice of trying to rewrite history by helping co-workers at the Texas seminary where he taught make a report of an alleged sexual misconduct incident “go away.”
Matthew Queen has been charged with falsifying records for allegedly giving FBI investigators doctored notes from a meeting he attended on Jan. 26, 2023, with two unnamed Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary employees, according to an indictment announced Tuesday by the Southern District of New York.
“As alleged, Matthew Queen attempted to interfere with a federal grand jury investigation by creating false notes in an attempt to corroborate his own lies,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Tuesday, after Queen was arraigned. “The criminal obstruction charge announced today should exemplify the seriousness of attempts by any individual to manipulate or interfere with a federal investigation.”
“Queen’s alleged actions deliberately violated a court order and delayed justice for the sexual abuse victims,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith said in a statement.
Queen, 49, who in February was named pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, said in a statement Wednesday that he cooperated with the investigation and has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
“As a Christian, a (former) seminary professor, and now a pastor, my integrity is everything to me and I will cling to that integrity and seek to be vindicated by God and man,” Queen said.
The seminary, in a statement, said it “disclosed the matter to the DOJ” after it had become aware of what had happened.
“After the seminary learned of Queen’s actions in June 2023, he was immediately placed on administrative leave and resigned as interim provost,” the seminary’s statement said. “All employees alleged to have acted improperly in this matter are no longer employed by the seminary.”
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was founded in 1908 by a Southern Baptist Convention leader, and the school remains affiliated with the Southern Baptist Church.
According to the court papers, since 2022 the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York have been “investigating allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct related to a national religious denomination” that is not named in the papers but is referred to as the “Denomination.”
In August 2022, SBC leaders confirmed that DOJ investigators were probing multiple allegations of clergy sex abuse at the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
Two months later, the school received a grand jury subpoena as part of that investigation which required it to produce all documents related to “allegations of sexual abuse” involving anyone associated with the school, according to the court papers.
Queen, who also served as the seminary’s interim provost, was allegedly in a meeting with two unnamed co-workers in January 2023 where “Employee-1” had a document that detailed a November 2022 sexual abuse allegation involving a seminary student and the “failure of the seminary to take action regarding the allegation at that time,” according to the court papers. That incident had not been reported to the DOJ, even though it occurred after the school received the subpoena.
During that meeting, the other seminary worker identified as Employee-2 “directed Employee-1” to “destroy the document” and make it “go away,” according to the court papers.
When Queen was interviewed in May by federal investigators about the January meeting, he “falsely stated” that he had not heard Employee-2 tell Employee-1 to destroy the document. But three days later, Queen shared with a third seminary employee a notebook he found “in his office containing purportedly contemporaneous notes” from that meeting that backed up his assertion. The notebook also showed there was an intention to share the destroyed document with another department at the school, according to the court papers.
He initially stuck to that story when he delivered the notebook to federal investigators in June 2023, but later in the month he testified that he was in fact present when one employee directed another to destroy the document, according to the DOJ.
Queen's lawyer Sam A. Schmidt said that his client "testified truthfully before the grand jury" and that he expects Queen to be exonerated.
Queen faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted of the falsification of records charge.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
