Virus Outbreak Pastor Lawsuit

FILE - Tony Spell, pastor of the Life Tabernacle Church of Central City, La., prays with supporters outside the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on June 7, 2021. Spell's lawsuit over Gov. John Bel Edwardsโ€™ past COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings was rejected for a second time Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, by a federal judge. Spell garnered national attention in March 2020 when he began to flout the stateโ€™s public health order at a time when much of the country was in lockdown over the emergence of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

 Gerald Herbert

The Rev. Tony Spell, the Central pastor best known for holding church services during the COVID pandemic, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly beating up his neighborโ€™s 20-year-old son and sending him to the hospital.ย 

The neighbor, Scott Sherwin, and Spell have been in an ongoing feud since 2020 when Spell sued Sherwin for installing surveillance cameras at his home, which is directly across the street from Spell's Life Tabernacle Church at 9323 Hooper Road. Spell claimed that Sherwin installed them to keep tabs on Spell.

According to Spellโ€™s arrest warrant, at around 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sherwin's son yelled โ€œf โ€” k youโ€ to the pastor from the front yard of the home. Spell started running across the street and the man yelled โ€œWhat are you going to do?โ€

Spell started beating on the man until drivers on the road stopped to see what was going on, the warrant said. Spell ran back into the church where he stayed until deputies arrested him.

Deputies made contact with Spell inside the church, and the pastor said he would not talk without his attorney. When his attorney arrived, he advised Spell not to make a statement and told deputies to start the booking process.

Spell was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.

The man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he had five stitches put in his chin. He did not suffer a concussion but has two severe black eyes, Sherwin said.

According to Sherwin, his son was in the front yard checking whether the grass was dry enough to mow. He said his son did nothing to provoke Spell. Sherwin was not home at the time of the incident.

The entire incident was caught on camera.

Spell made national headlines in 2020 when he refused to stop holding church services at Life Tabernacle, defying then-Gov. John Bel Edwards' emergency orders shutting down group events because of the COVID pandemic. He was charged with six misdemeanors.

The ถถา๕h Supreme Court later threw out those charges, saying Edwards' restrictions on religious gatherings violated the First Amendment.

Spell wasย arrested in 2020 after he allegedly almost hit a protester with a bus. He was later released and the charges dropped.

โ€œHe is a professional victim-player,โ€ Sherwin said. โ€œHe likes to hide behind women and children to cover up who he really is.โ€

Sherwin said he will be suing Spell after the incident Tuesday. Sherwin said he put his house on the market in April and plans to move because of the ongoing fights.

Tags