New Lawsuits Against MorningStar Fellowship Church Expand Sex Abuse Scandal

Following the Sept. 6 guilty plea to 10 charges related to sexual abuse by a former Cornelius police officer and youth church leader, for which he was sentenced to nine years in prison, leadership at the South Carolina megachurch where Erickson Douglas Lee preyed on children were likely hoping to put the disturbing episode behind them.

They will not be allowed to do so, as lawyers gathered in Rock Hill on Sept. 16 to announce a new slate of lawsuits that name not only Lee but MorningStar Fellowship Church, founder and senior pastor Richard Joyner, former church vice president David Yarnes, former head of security Douglas Lee and others they say turned a blind eye to years of exploitation and abuse.

Erickson Lee served as a volunteer youth leader at MorningStar Fellowship Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina. According to attorneys with McGowan, Hood, Felder, and Phillips, which is representing the plaintiffs, provided alcohol, vapes and pornography to males as young as 13, whom he would in some cases go on to sexually abuse, between 2019 and 2023.

Lee was arrested in April 2023, at which time he was fired from his job with the Cornelius Police Department, and on Sept. 6 pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct with a minor in the second and third degrees, assault and battery in the first degree, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and dissemination of obscene material to a minor.

Along with the aforementioned employees, the lawsuits name Erickson Lee’s assistant, Chase Portello, as well as 10 unidentified defendants described as “persons employed or associated with MorningStar who were aware Erickson Lee was providing alcohol, vapes or pornography to minor children.”

“Erickson Lee’s conduct was foreseeable and should never have occurred,” read court filings from the attorneys, who filed separate lawsuits for three victims, none of whom are named in the lawsuits.

They claim previous sexual abuse allegations were never reported to police, with the church instead handling them “in house.” The lawsuits also assert that several of the named defendants witnessed Lee’s misconduct yet failed to intervene, and further allege that Portello participated in intimidation to help cover the crimes up.

“The simple fact is that the leaders of MorningStar Fellowship Church not only failed to protect these young victims, they enabled and protected their abuser even after witnessing much of the abuse firsthand,” Hood said in a statement. “They had the chance to do the right thing on multiple occasions but, instead, tried to sweep it under the rug with at least one of them trying to help Lee try and intimidate his young victims.”

During a Sept. 16 press conference, Hood said Lee escalated grooming behavior into actual assault, saying that Lee began by introducing them to alcohol, then vapes, then sharing pornography before escalating the behavior to force them to sleep naked with him in sleeping bags, touching them, forcing them to take showers with him.

“Providing a safe environment for children, the most vulnerable population we have in society, you have no choice. There’s only one choice, and that choice is that you have to protect them,” Hood continued.

“And that involves the creation of policies and procedures, supervision and monitoring, and that was not done in this case. And we have three victims that have approached us, we’ve had a number of people that have reached out. I think that there are a lot more victims out there that we don’t know about that will become known in the weeks, in the months ahead. And it’s our intent to pursue this to discover the truth.”

Hood also addressed alleged incidents of sexual misconduct that were connected to the church in the past.

“There were, we know of, two young women that were abused or assaulted prior to any of this occurring. And we know of a young man who was abused or assaulted before this ever occurred,” he said.

“If they had not covered up the previous sexual assaults, or even if they had kept it within the church and they had done something — but nothing was done. It allowed an environment to exist that a predator came in and used the church grounds for his own personal playground. That’s unacceptable.”

MorningStar Fellowship Church responds

Established by Joyner in 1995, MorningStar Fellowship Church is located on a sprawling 52-acre campus in Fort Mill that was once home to Heritage USA, the long-defunct Christian-themed water park, theme park and residential complex built by televangelist Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye Bakker, founders of The PTL Club.

MorningStar purchased the property in 2004 to create a primary base for its Charlotte area congregation, the Comenius School for Creative Leadership (a Christian day school), the School of Ministry, and as a conference center.

Some of the incidents described in the new slate of lawsuits allegedly occurred on MorningStar property while others happened at MorningStar sponsored events including during trips to Gaston County and Camp Lejeune.

In a statement responding to the lawsuits, MorningStar said it was “saddened, shocked, and appalled” by the “mistreatment” of the young members of their church, and pledged to “continue to do all in our power to ensure the safety of all our youth and congregants.”

However, it disputes some of the claims made against church leadership, claiming they had no reason to distrust Lee, who the statement repeatedly points out was a police officer.

“One of the reasons that this matter is so shocking to us is that the former volunteer, who has been convicted, is a former police officer,” the statement reads. “Because of his status as a police officer, we had no reason to believe that Officer Lee would lead any young men into illegal activity, either through illegal sexual activities or illegally furnishing alcohol to minors. We believed his status as a police officer meant that he would be a protector of these young men rather than one who would impose illegal acts upon them. As we have often asked ourselves in the aftermath, ‘If we can’t trust a police officer as a youth worker, who can we trust?’”

MorningStar went on to state that, according to its own internal review, the church believes at least three separate background checks were run on Lee: one by the US military, a second by the Cornelius Police Department and a third one done internally by the church using a private company that offers background checks.

“We believe Officer Lee held a national security clearance by the United States Marine Corps, meaning he was most likely subject to an elevated background check. We relied on these checks, which raised no reasons for us to be concerned about Officer Lee. We felt confident at the time in his perceived stability and reliability partly because of his status as a police officer.”

MorningStar maintains that Lee was removed from his leadership position once church officials became aware he had given alcohol to minors and that they reported him to police when sexual abuse allegations were first raised. The church also said it believes the misconduct occurred entirely at Lee’s residence in Fort Mill.

“We have no credible reason to believe any crimes occurred on church property. Moreover, we have since learned that the address reflected in the warrants as the site of any criminal activity was where the accused, Officer Lee, apparently lived on the same property as one of the victim’s families.”

The statement claims Lee moved into a garage apartment attached to a home where one of his victims lived, unbeknownst to church leadership, and lived there at the invite of the family.

“It is at this location, according to media reports quoting the arrest warrants, that the crimes occurred, and [it] is our understanding that Officer Lee pled guilty to the crimes at this location,” the statement reads. “We were unaware of Officer Lee’s living situation and do not know whether Officer Lee informed his employer, the Cornelius Police Department, of this living arrangement.”

The statement goes on to point out that Lee was able to fool his “principal employer,” the Cornelius Police Department, “an agency that has much greater background check capabilities than most.”

Victims’ attorneys have acknowledged that the incidents described in the lawsuits are separate from the ones Lee has pleaded guilty to.

During the Sept. 16 press conference, Hood pointed out that Erickson Lee’s father, Douglas Lee, was the head of security for the church while the abuse was happening, which Hood said played a role in why Lee was able to prey on children for years without any repercussions.

“We are aware that several young men have filed lawsuits against the ministry,” read the statement from MorningStar. “While we don’t know at this point what more we could have done to have vetted Officer Lee in advance to ensure that he would not have taken advantage of these young men, we hold no malice or anger towards the young men or their parents who have chosen to file suit. Some of these families remained active in our church even for months after Officer Lee’s arrest, and they are always welcome at MorningStar.

“Nonetheless, our principal concern is, and always will be, the emotional and spiritual well-being of the young men and their families.”

In August, then-MorningStar CEO, President and Pastor Chris Reed announced his resignation from the church in a YouTube video and via letter to church staff and volunteers.

In the video, Reed said the abuse by Lee happened before he was involved with MorningStar, but noted that he knew the families and victims. He said that fact put him in an untenable situation.

“If I defended the ministry, then it was like I’m having to go against the victims. If I defend the victims, then where does the ministry stand?” he asked.

In another video, posted about a week after the one announcing his departure from the church, Reed said he and his family had received threats.

Joyner addressed Reed’s resignation during a sermon at MorningStar on Sept. 1, where he made clear he felt aggrieved by the situation.

“What alarmed me … was in these letters there was almost no regard for the church, no regard for the ministry, no regard for a lot of people. It was all about him and his future and what he needed to do,” Joyner said. “And I’m for that. I want him to have the brightest future he can have, but I did not feel that there was a shepherd’s heart revealed.”

“A shepherd lays down their life for the sheep and certainly has regard for them. I didn’t feel there was any regard for me [or] for our board.”

Read more: Pat’s Place Rings Alarm After Record-Breaking Year for Child Abuse (2023)

Joyner also characterized the accusations in the lawsuits facing the church as “wildly untrue” and “way out of the box untrue” during that sermon.

Hood responded to that framing during the Sept. 16 press conference.

“I stand by every allegation that we have put in our complaints,” he said. “I have multiple witnesses and I have evidence to prove every allegation that we have in our complaints.”