The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pastor’s blessing leaves woman with brain injury, lawsuit says
More than a year later, woman says she’s still recovering from push.
It was supposed to be a touch on her forehead, blessings from her church’s senior pastor. Instead, the pastor pushed Yvonne Byrd so hard, she fell to the ground and suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to a lawsuit filed this week in Gwinnett County state court.
Byrd arrived early to Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church on March 5, 2017, to sing in the choir. She had attended the Norcross mega-church for 15 years, the lawsuit states.
After the second service, Bishop William Sheals began “blessing” members of the congregation by touching their heads.
“The pastor was going around and healing different congregants,” attorney Brian Mickelson said Friday. “She was singing and meditating on what he had said.”
When it was her turn to be blessed, Byrd was knocked off the step she was stand- ing on and fell, Mickelson said. The incident was captured on video, but not everyone in the church immediately realized Byrd was on the ground, her attorney said. The pastor continued with blessings, according to Mickelson.
“When Defendant Sheals passed Ms. Byrd, instead of blessing her by touching her on the head as he did other congregants, he pushed her forehead with such force, that it caused her to fall backward and slam the back of her skull against the hard floor,” the suit states.
Byrd was knocked out cold, Mickelson said.
She was immediately taken to a local hospital for treatment. She later received treatment at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, her attorneys said Friday.
More than a year later, Byrd, 60, says she is still recovering from the “mild traumatic brain injury” she sustained when she fell. Byrd declined to comment and the full extent of her injuries Journal-Constitution.
Sheals, 71, has served at Hopewell nearly 38 years, according to his online biography, and has grown the once-struggling church from 200 members to around 15,000. Sheals, often referred to as “Papa,” and his church are not disclosed in the suit. have been featured multiple
Both Sheals and the church times in The AJC. are named as defendants in In June 2015, about 250 the lawsuit. Sheals, the suit church members gathered contends, was reckless and on a Friday night to voice negligent when he injured their opposition to the U.S. Byrd. She is seeking a jury Supreme Court’s landmark trial and unspecified dam- ruling on same-sex marriage. ages for personal injuries, “We stand up and speak medical expenses and per- out against homosexuality manent physical and psy- and the social ills facing our chological damages, the lawcommunity,” Sheals said. suit states. In addition to opposing
“Defendant Hopewell (Missame-sex marriage, Sheals sionary Baptist Church) had said church members wanted a duty to adequately super- to protect the black commuvise and train its employnity. “We are here because ees, including Defendant our schools are failing, our Sheals, as to appropriate and neighborhoods are crumsafe physical contact with bling, and our neighborcongregants during church hoods are falling apart,” services,” according to the Sheals told the congregation. lawsuit. In 2007, the Gwinnett
Assistant Pastor Alfred branch of the NAACP preDavis said Friday afternoon sented Sheals with its Lifethe church was unaware of time Achievement Award. the lawsuit. Two years earlier, Sheals
“We have not received any had more than 100 atteninformation on any lawsuit, dants present when he marso we have no comment at ried his second wife, Patrithis time,” Davis said in cia Kim. The couple resides a message to The Atlanta in John Creek.