The president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has weighed in with a public statement identifying the two other employees mentioned but not named in a federal indictment.
In a May 29 release, President David Dockery identified Terri Stovall, longtime-serving dean of women, as “employee 1,” the person who created a detailed report of a credible accusation of sexual abuse committed by a student. He named her, he said, with her permission. Other sources told BNG Stovall had asked to be identified by name because she believes she did the right thing.
David Dockery
Dockery also identified former Chief of Staff Heath Woolman as “employee 2” in the indictment, the person who allegedly told Stovall to make her report “go away.”
The indictment details a meeting that happened in January 2023 with Stovall, Woolman and Matt Queen, then serving as interim provost. According to Dockery’s account, this meeting happened after student Christian Flores had been arrested — with help of the seminary police department — on charges that he raped a woman who was not a student. The alleged assault happened off campus.
When Stovall became aware of the allegation in November 2022, she “followed institutional procedure to care for victims of sexual abuse and immediately reported the allegation to the chief of Campus Police,” Dockery said. “No one else on campus was informed of this matter and the chief of Campus Police, who is no longer employed at the seminary, took no further action in November.”
That failure to act on Stovall’s report is an apparent violation of seminary policy on responding to sexual abuse allegations. All this transpired as the FBI already was on campus investigating wider concerns about sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Dockery said he was not made aware of any of this story until “late January 2023.”
Terri Stovall
His account states: “At the end of January 2023, after the seminary had assisted the Burleson Police Department in arresting the student accused of sexual assault, Stovall, following a morning chapel service, discussed a document she prepared regarding the incident with Heath Woolman, then chief of staff, and in the presence of Matt Queen, then interim provost. According to Stovall, Woolman instructed her to make the document ‘go away’ during this conversation. Of particular note here, all employees had previously been made aware of the Department of Justice investigation in an all-employees meeting in August of 2022. Further, upon receipt of a subpoena from the Department of Justice in November 2022, employees with relevant information had been made aware of the subpoena, including the need to preserve and produce any responsive documents.
“In a follow-up conversation concerning what was said to Stovall, Woolman provided me assurance that he did not instruct her to make the document ‘go away.’ Queen, for his part, acknowledged to me on more than one occasion that he did not hear Woolman instruct Stovall to make the document ‘go away.’ For nearly five months, we operated within the tension of knowing that employees in whom we had confidence had differences of recollection regarding the January conversation. However, in June 2023, Queen claimed that he now recalled hearing the directive related to the document and also provided additional information that led to the decision for him to resign as interim provost and to be placed on administrative leave.
Heath Woolman
“In keeping with our obligation and our commitment to fully cooperate with the Department of Justice in its investigation, we continued, through the seminary’s legal counsel, to keep the Department of Justice aware of these developments. Thankfully, we were able to provide the Department of Justice with the document in question.”
The federal indictment alleges “Queen falsely stated that he had not heard Employee 2 direct Employee 1 to destroy the document.” The indictment further alleges that Queen later produced falsified notes about these events in response to a grand jury subpoena and lied to federal investigators.
Corresponding with Dockery’s statement, the indictment says on June 21, 2023, Queen “testified under oath that he had in fact heard Employee 2 direct Employee 1 to make the document ‘go away.’”
No charges have been filed against Woolman for allegedly attempting to hide evidence of the assault, only against Queen for allegedly misleading the FBI.
However, three months after that fateful meeting with Queen, Stovall and Woolman, Woolman became a candidate for the pastorate at Fruit Cove Baptist Church in St. Johns, Fla., where he currently serves.
Dockery said he had endorsed Woolman for that position but now regrets doing so.
“He requested, and I offered, a brief affirmation of his candidacy to the church given his then role at the seminary, given the fact that he had been a quality student in one of my doctoral seminars, and given the information available to us at the time,” Dockery said. “Woolman resigned as chief of staff on May 5, 2023, to accept the pastoral position. If asked to provide the same recommendation today, and based on information received subsequent to that time, I would not be able to provide the same recommendation.
Matthew Queen
“This episode is a matter of deep regret to me. I am, however, grateful that several employees in whom I placed great trust acted responsibly, especially Terri Stovall. I commend the service and integrity of these employees. We remain resolute to continue to cooperate fully with the Department of Justice in all aspects of this investigation.”
Woolman has not made any public statement about the incident. Queen has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and has been placed on administrative leave by the church he now serves as pastor, Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C.
Both Woolman and Queen were hired at Southwestern before Dockery became president.
Queen was hired by former President Paige Patterson in August 2010 and initially served as an evangelism professor. He later became interim provost amid a series of staff shakeups at the Fort Worth, Texas, school.
Woolman was hired as chief of staff at Southwestern in March 2022 by then-President Adam Greenway after Greenway’s previous chief of staff, Colby Adams, was reassigned to a different role. Woolman was employed at the seminary only 15 months. His tenure and all these events played out amid a series of staff changes in the latter days of Greenway’s presidency that culminated in a falling out among some staff who were loyal to Greenway and others who were not. Greenway was forced out as president in September 2022, two months before the alleged sexual assault was reported.
Stovall is unique among all the people in the story because she was hired as dean of women in 2002, making her a 22-year employee of the seminary who has worked with four presidents.
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