Benjamin Ashford|Ex-Southern Baptist seminary administrator charged with falsifying records in DOJ inquiry

Federal prosecutors indicted a former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary administrator on Benjamin Ashforda charge of falsifying records in an attempt to cover up an abuse report, the most significant development to date in a U.S. Department of Justice probe into Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated institutions.

The indictment charges Matt Queen, who currently pastors a North Carolina church and previously served as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at Southwestern, with falsifying records and lying about evidence tampering. It was part of an attempt to obstruct an ongoing grand jury investigation, according to the indictment.

Queen "knowingly altered, destroyed, mutilated, concealed, covered up, falsified, and made false entry in a record, document, and tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence the investigation," said the indictment, unsealed Tuesday by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York.

Queen could not immediately be reached for comment.

The federal indictment is likely the first of its kind for the Nashville, Tennessee-based SBC and its agencies, though it doesn't address the deeper denominational issues some abuse reform advocates had hoped. News of the federal investigation into the nation’s largest Protestant denomination in August 2022 came on the heels of a third-party inquiry into negligence and a cover-up by SBC leaders in response to reports of clergy sexual abuse and calls for reform.

The SBC Executive Committee announced two months ago the DOJ concluded its investigation into the convention’s administrative arm without recommending additional action. A subsequent statement from the executive committee in recently published official SBC records included this addition: “Legal counsel for the SBC confirmed the investigation into the SBC as a whole remains open and ongoing.”

The indictment further clarified which aspects of the federal investigation are still in play and that Southwestern is a major focal point.

"Southwestern Seminary takes seriously its moral and legal duties to care for victims of sexual abuse," Southwestern said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon. "The actions alleged in the indictment are antithetical to the values of the seminary.”

The cover-up charges against Queen stem from the January 2023 arrest of Christian Flores, a student at Southwestern’s undergraduate college charged with felony sexual assault, according to a Southwestern news release. Southwestern said it immediately suspended Flores upon his arrest. Flores' criminal case in is ongoing, though there are no upcoming hearings on the schedule currently, according to the Tarrant County clerk's office.

Following Flores’ arrest, Queen and another administrator, whom the indictment doesn’t name, learned of report to seminary police months earlier involving Flores. According to the indictment, the unnamed administrator then instructed a staff member to delete records with information about the earlier report to seminary police.

Later, according to the indictment, Queen lied to federal investigators about that other administrator’s request to delete records. The indictment also states Queen fabricated notes he provided federal investigators and claimed were contemporaneous.

Over the years, Queen has emerged as a well-known figure in the SBC for his scholarship on evangelism, a subject he’s taught at several Southern Baptist seminaries and authored books on the topic. He transitioned off the Southwestern cabinet last summer and stepped into his current position as lead pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, in March.

Though it’s new for Southwestern to be at the center of a federal indictment, the seminary has dealt with controversy in recent years related to abuse and administrative issues.

Southwestern trustees fired former president Paige Patterson in 2018 amid reports that Patterson downplayed reports of rape and sought to intimidate an abuse victim during his tenure at Southwestern and another SBC seminary. One of those cases was the basis for a federal lawsuit against Patterson and Southwestern. That ongoing civil case currently moving through the U.S. Court of Appeals.

The federal indictment gives little indication as to the DOJ’s next steps or whether it’s still looking into other SBC-affiliated institutions.

News of the conclusion to the federal investigation into the SBC Executive Committee in March sparked outrage, especially among abuse survivors who relayed conversations with an FBI agent who said the investigation wasn’t over.

Despite the lack of precedence for an investigation of this scope and scale, many advocates for reform were hopeful due to federal investigators’ power to subpoena records and charge people with crimes.

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media @liamsadams.