3 women sue church over ex-pastor’s abuse

TEXARKANA — Three women have filed a lawsuit stemming from abuse they say they suffered at the hands of a Texarkana pastor, who is now serving multiple life sentences for child sexual assault.

The women had testified in late June and early July that Logan Wesley III, pastor of Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ in Texarkana, sexually abused them for years. At the end of Wesley’s trial in Bowie County, Texas, a jury convicted him of all counts. He is serving five consecutive life sentences plus 220 years.

Lawyers David Carter and Neil Smith filed a civil lawsuit Thursday on behalf of the three women in Miller County Circuit Court. Those named as defendants in the suit include COGIC Inc. headquartered in Memphis and Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ in Texarkana.

Numbers listed on various internet sites for Trinity Temple are disconnected. COGIC headquarters did not respond to an email request for comment.

One woman testified that Wesley sexually and physically abused her beginning when she was 13 in 1999 until 2003. Another testified that Wesley began abusing her when she went to live with him at age 13. One woman testified that her stepmother was aware of the abuse and took steps to conceal it. Another woman testified that Wesley began sexually abusing her when she was 9 in 1996 and continued until 2004.

The suit states that Wesley “physically abused, sexually abused and falsely imprisoned” the plaintiffs at a variety of locations in Texarkana, Ark., Texarkana, Texas, and Nash, Texas. That includes at the church’s former location on Pinehurst Street in Texarkana, Ark., its current location on Washington Street in Texarkana, Ark., in offices where Wesley worked in Nash, in church vans, at Wesley’s home in Texarkana, Texas, in Wesley’s personal cars, at Grady T. Wallace Park in Texarkana, Texas, “unknown hotels in Texas and Arkansas” and “side of the road” unknown locations in Texas and Arkansas.

The suit states that COGIC Inc. is liable for the suffering of Wesley’s victims. The complaint explains the international church’s organizational structure in depth and notes that Wesley was ordained as a COGIC pastor in 1993 at a church in Ozan despite having a violent criminal history. Wesley was convicted of assault in 1990 “for kicking his pregnant girlfriend repeatedly in the stomach,” the complaint states. “He was also charged with injury to a child in Paris, Texas, in 1991.”

The complaint states that a woman reported to adult church members in Texarkana and to a COGIC pastor in Wilton that Wesley was sexually abusing her but that no action was taken.

The complaint also states that the congregation at Trinity Temple heard about at least one incidence of child physical abuse from Wesley himself. At his criminal trial, witnesses testified that on a Sunday when one of the women had black eyes, Wesley told the congregation that he had beaten her because “no child is gonna run my house” and that congregants responded “Amen.”

According to the complaint, the woman was a missionary.

“Church missionaries must be licensed and/or ordained in the COGIC church and serve as administrative assistants to the clergymen of the church, including local pastors,” the complaint states. “At least one plaintiff reported Wesley’s abuse … during the time they were abused. [She] told them not to say anything about the abuse or they would burn in hell.”

The suit seeks a judgment to compensate the plaintiffs for their physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, attorney fees and court costs as well as punitive damages.