Tony Spell, Pastor of Life Tabernacle Church continued his streak of openly defying state orders to shut down his church services by holding his regularly scheduled in-person services inside his Church building on Sunday, despite being under house arrest and despite a judge ordering that he stay at home and not leave his house.
After he was accused of trying to run over a protester (From the video evidence a very weak claim and looks like a pretext to shut him down,) Spell was charged with aggravated assault and another misdemeanour, a charge punishable by up to 6 months in jail or a 1000$ fine, or both.
One of the conditions of Spell’s release on the assault charge was that he must be fitted with an ankle monitor and “refrain from any and all criminal conduct, including but not limited to strictly abiding by the all emergency orders issued by the Governor of the State of Louisiana.”
The judge overseeing the case asked Spell if he intended to comply with his order. The only reply the pastor gave was quoting 1 Peter 3:14. “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.”
A video of the ankle bracelet being put on was uploaded on Spell’s Youtube page
Spell is continuing to rack up the citations, so far collecting 6 of them for the misdemeanour offence of violating the stay at home orders and shows no sign of backing down or buckling on his convictions. But defying the Judges orders and violating his arrest condition is likely to bring stiffer penalties, than mere misdemeanours, including some very real jail time for the pastor.
Police Chief Corcoran said after being informed that the object of his vexations led service again “It’s a blatant disrespect to the law and to the judge’s order. It’s further proof Tony Spell is out for himself and has no respect for the law.”
As a result of these actions, Joshua Feuerstein, Pastor Greg Locke and several prominent conservative figures are organizing a protest today in front of the governor’s mansion in response to the unconstitutional arrest of Pastor Tony Spell, and several hundred people are expected to attend.
