Court grants indicted seminary professor three more weeks to file motions – Baptist News Global

Federal Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan The Southern District of New York District Court granted former Southwestern Seminary professor and interim provost Matthew Queen three additional weeks to file motions, given an ongoing dispute between Queen's attorney and the federal government over discovery materials.

According to court transcripts of Queen's previous appearances obtained by BNG and a previous interview with her attorney, Sam Schmidt, these will include motions to suppress evidence and even dismiss the case — highly unusual moves given that such motions are typically reserved for cases where there are allegations of prosecutorial misconduct or violations of a defendant's civil rights, none of which Schmidt, so far, has publicly alleged.

Although the extension of the deadline for filing motions has no immediate impact on the trial, currently scheduled for December 9, the possibility of a delay remains. This uncertainty adds a level of concern to the ongoing legal proceedings.

Judge Kaplan approved the request Schmidt asked Queen to continue her trial, pending the court's upcoming decision on the government's request for a protective injunction. Prosecutors are seeking to prevent Queen and Schmidt from releasing information about the case to Queen's employer and the media. Schmidt alleges that Queen should be able to clear her name because of alleged false statements the government made in a widely circulated press release.

It’s unclear when Kaplan will make his decision on the protective order. If he grants the government’s request, a significant portion of the discovery documents will remain “for attorneys to view,” preventing Queen from accessing them or sharing details with others. If the proposed order is denied, Schmidt and Queen could potentially make the discovery documents public.

That could include terabytes of data Southwestern turned over to the FBI, which could contain private and sensitive correspondence between seminary administrators and professors. Another possibility is that Kaplan could issue a limited protective order, allowing some documents to be released while others would remain confidential.

Schmidt also stated in a previous letter in court that Queen altered information he provided to the government in meetings with FBI agents after being told by the seminary's legal counsel to “pray and meditate to remember” and “woke from a dream believing he remembered more” about a conversation about which he allegedly falsified documents.

Queen's claim that there is divine revelation has been controversial. SBC theologians have largely downplayed (but not completely rejected) such claims of special revelation, emphasizing the central role of Scripture in practical life decisions.

BNG’s coverage of this curious allegation has caught the attention of several anti-abuse reform advocates, including Christa Brown, a BNG contributor and retired appellate attorney. Commenting on Queen’s claim that a divine dream provided the FBI with new information, Brown quipped: “How convenient it is to have a god who gives the divine imprimatur to a man’s power. Basically, God becomes the ultimate authority who gets used to sanctifying the authoritarian goals of humans. And often, those goals are far from sacred.”

The claim also attracted attention of the popular church watchdog blog The Wartburg Watch, which recently played a central role in the resignation of former Gateway Church senior pastor Robert Morris. In a post that received nearly 21,000 impressions, editor Dee Parsons sighed about Queen’s statement: “Some days there are no words…”

This widespread attention did not please Queen or Schmidt.

Schmidt claimed in a July 26 letter to the government that BNG had “clearly misinterpreted” his previous response to the government's petition “because he testified only once after recalling (sic) additional information.”

Although Schmidt uses the word “testify” in the technical sense of appearing before the grand jury, BNG has confirmed that Queen was questioned by the government on multiple occasions and changed details of his story each time. This was confirmed by reviewing court documents, interviews with multiple people familiar with the investigation, and cross-checking statements from the prosecution, defense, and the seminar. All of this information was compiled into a comprehensive timeline that BNG published in an article about Queen’s trial date setting.

In a previous interview with BNGSchmidt said Queen was not seeking to share discovery documents with his church or the press, only relevant information that he said would clear his name because of his dismissal by his church and the many false statements he believes came from the government and the media. The government disagrees and has said that releasing the information would endanger witnesses and victims.

In a scathing response to Schmidt's initial letter to the court, the government argued: “Defendant proposes to publicly and selectively release documents to which there is no presumption of public access in order to support his evolving explanations of his conduct. … This impermissible use of criminal disclosure must be enjoined.”

The Queen has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

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