pastor michael pitts of cornerstone church(8/13/03)
Not too long ago, I read something on The Toledo Blade's web site about Pastor Michael Pitts of Cornerstone Church. (It's in Maumee, a Toledo suburb.) It made me think back to when I was working for The Blade a few years ago and Pastor Pitts was in the news quite a bit.
You see, Pastor Michael Pitts was charged with several counts of exposing himself to strangers. I should make it clear that he was never convicted of any of these charges. (I want to make sure that his lawyers, wherever they may be, see I am making this clear.) But there was a significant amount of evidence that many people found quite convincing.
In 1995, he was stopped by police after allegedly being spotted masturbating in front of two young boys hitting golf balls at a local baseball diamond. Officials did not press charges after Pastor Pitts agreed to seek counseling with a psychologist who sees sex offenders, they said. (The Pitts camp claims the officials are lying.)
In 1997, he faced eight counts of public indecency and seven counts of criminal trespass, linked to a series of incidents in which a man matching Pastor Pitts' description was reported exposing himself to people in places like a local park and a Wal-Mart parking lot. His car was spotted near where several of the incidents occurred.
Pastor Pitts hired some very fine attorneys and, in the end, all charges except for two criminal trespass misdemeanors were suddenly dropped. His final punishment: 14 days of house arrest with an ankle bracelet and a $500 fine. As part of the unusual plea agreement, both prosecution and defense agreed that neither side would be allowed to discuss the reasons for the sudden deal.
Pastor Pitts claimed complete vindication. Others were less sure.
Why am I bringing this up after the fact? Well, I Googled Pastor Pitts, and I was surprised to find that there was no mention anywhere on the Internet of his alleged indiscretions. None. There was also no mention of the fact that, in 2000, he was convicted of driving while intoxicated
That didn't seem right.
Pastor Pitts is from that particular branch of Christianity that believes that being a holy man and making enormous profits from one's church are not mutually contradictory. At least as of a few years ago, he was living in a half-million-dollar home on 30 acres, wearing designer duds, and driving a Cadillac. He blamed his problems on "media monsters."
So that's why, on this page, I've posted a few old articles from my old newspaper. I think anyone looking up the good pastor should have access to some information about his past, shall we say, issues.
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First, a few Pitts-related links:
Multimedia:
Pastor Michael Pitts' welcome video. A good strong dose of Pitts, complete with Broadway gestures. His televangelism has clearly been good training.
A great sound file of Pastor Pitts preaching.
Images:
Other links:
"Many church leaders regard [Pitts] as one of this generation's most gifted leaders. His apostolic ministry is most noted for its spirit of excellence, diving order and breakthrough anointing. "
Cornerstone's web site, complete with god-awful Flash navigation. (Jesus was clearly not the web designer's co-pilot.)
Pitts' message to web site visitors. "We see ourselves as a big family rather than an organization."
An old bio of Pitts from circa 2000.
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Just to be clear: I am not the author of any of these stories. All appeared in The Toledo Blade on the dates given. I was a Blade employee during the period all but the last of these stories (the DWI piece) was published.
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DATE: Sunday, November 30, 1997
EDITION: CITY FINAL
PAGE: A1
TYPE: SPECIAL REPORT
DESPITE INQUIRY, CHURCH SAYS PASTOR STILL ITS CORNERSTONE
JOKES RIDICULE PITTS; PRAYERS SUPPORT HIM
BY GEORGE J. TANBER BLADE STAFF WRITER
Pastor Robert Pitts is frustrated and weary.
He sits in his office at Cornerstone Church on Reynolds Road in South Toledo, a congregation he and his brother, Pastor Michael Pitts, started in 1987. Today it has 5,500 members. That makes Cornerstone one of the area's largest churches.
And the wealthiest.
Its 58,000-square-foot Reynolds Road building, a former super drug store, was remodeled at a cost of about $1.5 million and includes 30 classrooms. Its sanctuary looks like a movie set for The Pat Robertson Story.
So Robert Pitts, 34, who serves as Cornerstone's de facto CEO, should be feeling flush. He's not.
His 33-year-old brother, Lucas County's most well-known televangelist, faces 10 misdemeanor counts of exposing himself in public.
Michael Pitts has court dates in Toledo, Wauseon, and Maumee during the next several months. On Nov. 18, a Lucas County woman testified in Toledo Municipal Court that Mr. Pitts masturbated in front of her in the parking lot of a South Toledo store.
If found guilty, Mr. Pitts could face up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine for each charge.
His arrests have been the talk of Toledo. Crude jokes about Mr. Pitts have been making the rounds at bars, dinner tables, and office coffee breaks.
Shortly after he was first charged, a "Mornings are the Pitts" billboard went up in West Toledo with a photograph of radio jock Denny Schaffer portraying the pastor with his pants down.
And unflattering imitations of Pastor Pitts made the rounds at Halloween parties in Toledo and as far away as Kelleys Island.
"It's been difficult on our family seeing a brother, a son, face this barrage of accusations," Robert Pitts said in his office, which is as large and homey as a family den.
Robert Pitts has been spending much of his time conferring with his brother's four attorneys and a private investigator, all of whom earn $150 an hour and more, sources said.
As a result, the Pitts defense could end up being the most expensive misdemeanor case in the history of Lucas County.
Even before his legal problems, Michael Pitts was one of the area's most recognized pastors. His half-hour program, Present Truth, runs every weekday on WUPW-TV, Channel 36, at 1:30 p.m. He has been featured in a number of TV commercials promoting Cornerstone Church.
Michael Pitts, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
"I feel like Elvis Presley. I'm being sighted at places I've never been," he said in an earlier interview.
Although investigators and prosecutors spent months on the cases before filing their charges, one piece of evidence in several of the incidents in which Pastor Pitts is charged - a video investigators have said shows him committing indecent acts near Oak Openings Metropark - is so unclear that the person in it is unidentifiable.
Mr. Pitts's defense team also will raise the fact that a Lucas County sheriff's deputy who bears a resemblance to Mr. Pitts has been charged with a similar indecent exposure charge during the same period Mr. Pitts is accused of exposing himself, sources said.
Despite the controversy surrounding their pastor, most Cornerstone members have rallied around Mr. Pitts.
Many of them have declined to speak to the press.
The general feeling among them is that Mr. Pitts has been unfairly maligned by the media, which has led to his negative image despite the lack of any conviction.
"We love him. He's not guilty," said Vera Garman, a Cornerstone member four years.
On Election Day at the Glendale-Feilbach Elementary School, one Cornerstone member refused to be interviewed by a Blade reporter asking her whom she voted for in the mayor's race.
She walked away, but soon returned to explain.
"I hope you realize the sins you're committing," said the woman, who did not identify herself. "If you read the Bible, you know what happens to people who try to hurt a man of God."
So the question remains, which is Pastor Michael Pitts - saint or sinner?
*
Michael Pitts was born to be a vocal servant of God.
His paternal grandparents, Hearl and Monnie Pitts of tiny Alger, O., near Lima, are preachers. They left their native Breathitt County, Ky., home during the Depression, moving first to Michigan, and then to Indiana before settling in the Lima area.
Hearl Pitts, reluctant to comment on his grandson, said members of his family have been preachers as far back as he can remember.
Michael Pitts grew up in a low-income, working-class neighborhood in south Lima - one of four children of factory workers Eugene and Brenda Pitts, who now live in Bowling Green.
In a Blade interview earlier this year, the pastor described his boyhood home as a pious one.
"My dad was always in church," he said. "He was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit from before I was born. My mom played guitar and was a singer at Quick step Pentecostal Holiness Church in Alger."
A photograph of Robert and Michael Pitts, barely knee-high, looking up at a statue of Jesus, hangs on an office wall at Cornerstone.
During a recent tour of the church, Robert Pitts spoke of the picture with considerable pride and pointed out that his parents were active in the tent revival movement of the late 1960s and early '70s.
A number of the visiting revival preachers stayed with the Pittses, Robert Pitts said, adding another dimension to a home focused on independent, "spirit- filled" worship, as Michael Pitts once described it.
When not praying at home or at revivals, the Pittses gathered at Liberty Temple in Lima, a charismatic Pentecostal church led by Dr. Leon Stutzman. Despite his spiritual upbringing, Michael Pitts admitted that he was a troubled youth.
"Looking back," he said, "I wonder if that unquestioning faith was always a good thing. I wanted to understand how they justified their way of faith. But in those churches you didn't ask questions. You believed."
So he did what many children do: He rebelled.
"I was ornery, always into something," he said. "I started having problems at school. There was lots of tension in Lima in those days in the schools, with racial problems and violence. We lived in a predominantly black neighborhood. I was getting into a fight every other day."
According to Lima police records, Michael Pitts was arrested once - for a rock-throwing incident at 14.
Despite his problems, he never strayed far from his religion. "I had this feel for God," he said.
That same year he was saved and, not long after, he and Robert sat down and planned their futures.
"I remember a distinct night that we talked late into the night," Robert Pitts said. "That was when we first recognized the call of God as full-time ministers. If the Lord allowed it, we would work together."
At the time, Robert Pitts was active in three sports at Lima Senior High School. Michael liked sports too, but he worked after school at a neighborhood grocery store. Once Michael Pitts decided his path, he aggressively pursued it. He had a gift for preaching, and at 16 he began to deliver guest sermons to Lima area churches.
Robert Pitts explained: "I think he had a clear-cut understanding of what he wanted to do with his life. He's a very self-motivated, self-learned person."
Robert Pitts recognizes that his brother is a dynamic speaker. It's something Michael worked hard at, he said. But Michael Pitts's real talent is something else. "It's his ability to gather people," Robert said.
Despite his gift in the pulpit, Michael Pitts moved through Lima Senior in relative anonymity. Renee Benedum sat in front of Michael in aviation class in 1982, their senior year. "He was shy and quiet," she said. "He wasn't real popular. He was just a classmate."
After graduation, Michael Pitts became an assistant pastor at Liberty Temple. In the mid-1980s he was ordained by Leon Stutzman and other Liberty Temple pastors. Michael Pitts did not attend college or divinity school, his brother said, but that's not unusual in charismatic Pentecostal churches, where there is no formal organization or governing body.
Mr. Stutzman, now pastor of Liberty Christian Cathederal in Dayton, said he hasn't talked to Mr. Pitts in eight years. He said they had a falling out, but he would not elaborate. Robert Pitts said only that Mr. Stutzman and his brother grew apart.
Of the young Michael Pitts, Mr. Stutzman said: "He definitely had charisma. Michael always was very driven. He always had a clear view of where he was going and what he wanted."
*
In 1987, when he was 23, Michael Pitts has said that he had a calling from God that told him to start a church in Toledo. By then, Robert Pitts also had been ordained at Liberty Temple. The brothers began monthly services at the Ramada and Holiday Inn on Reynolds Road. Eighteen people showed up at their first service.
Word of Michael Pitts's fiery sermons, his unique ministry, and his "healing powers" spread. Cornerstone Church quickly grew. In eight years, it moved four times, ending up at its Reynolds Road location in April, 1995. The church now has 16 full-time employees.
In the earlier interview, Michael Pitts said that as a teenager he imagined directing a multiracial, multicultural church. Apparently, he has achieved that goal; observers call Cornerstone the area's most racially diverse church.
With 5,500 economically diverse members as well, Cornerstone also has become a wealthy church, a fact Robert Pitts neither disputes nor hides.
"Our members are taught to ... give," he said.
Although 10 per cent of gross income is considered generous by any standard, many Cornerstone members give "above and beyond" that amount, he said.
The Cornerstone faithful apparently were so pleased with Michael Pitts's leadership last summer that at his 33rd birthday party, held at the church and attended by about 3,000 people, an unspecified number of party-goers contributed $33 each to the pastor's gift fund, Robert Pitts said. The event was organized by David Banks, an assistant pastor at Cornerstone.
"He's God's child, and God owns the diamonds, and the rubies. He's supposed to have it," said one Cornerstone member who declined to give her name. "Whatever he needs, I'd give it to him."
With its deep pockets, Cornerstone paid cash for the pricey renovation work at its Reynolds Road church. In October, 1995, it paid $750,000 for 11 acres across the street, on Dussel Drive. Robert Pitts said that despite the recent controversy surrounding his brother, business is good, and the church may have to expand or find a new location.
Michael and Robert Pitts appear to be living well too.
When they started Cornerstone, the Pitts brothers were renting apartments in Lima and driving cheap cars. Robert worked as a laborer at General Dynamics in Lima, while Michael remained an assistant pastor at Liberty Temple.
Since then, Michael Pitts has moved several times. In August, he paid $440,000 for a house and 30 acres on South Wilkins Road in Swanton Township, according to property records. He lives with his wife of 14 years, Kathi, and their two children.
Last summer, Robert Pitts moved into a home in The Quarry, the exclusive development at the old Salisbury Quarry in Monclova Township.
Michael and Robert wear designer clothes and drive expensive vehicles. Michael has a Cadillac, while Robert owns a Ford Expedition.
"We do not promote excessive living," Robert Pitts said. "We promote successful living."
Their income, which Robert Pitts would not divulge, is not only derived from the church. Michael earns additional money from books - he's written four - from speeches, and from investments, according to his brother.
Robert Pitts said he's had real estate investments since he was 21. At one time, he said, he owned 60 commercial and residential properties in Northwest Ohio; he said he still owns about 30. Over the past two years he said he sold 22 properties to pay for his house.
Both brothers love to hunt. Robert - whose office contains impala, wildebeest, bushbuck, and silver fox trophies - has been on four African safaris. His most recent trip took him to Tanzania in September.
*
As it turned out, he couldn't have picked a worse time to leave.
At 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 18, just as Michael Pitts was leaving his church after the Thursday evening service, he was handcuffed and taken to the Lucas County jail, charged by Waterville Township and Toledo Area Metropark police with three misdemeanor counts each of public indecency and criminal trespassing.
By Nov. 7, seven additional public indecency charges and four other criminal trespassing charges had been filed against Mr. Pitts, including alleged incidents in Toledo and Wauseon.
Seven of the indecency incidents allegedly took place between May, 1996, and this June at the edge of a private, wooded area at State Rt. 295 and Obee Road near Oak Openings Metropark. In each of the incidents, witnesses said they saw a white male expose himself as they drove along Route 295.
On two occasions, Feb. 14 and June 21, Metropark police said they saw Mr. Pitts in the vicinity near the time the incidents took place.
On Feb. 14, police said Mr. Pitts sped away after they saw him in his car. On June 21, police said they saw Mr. Pitts's black Cadillac parked in an old driveway on the vacant property at Route 295 and Obee. They later saw Mr. Pitts, who told them he had been jogging in the area.
Metropark police said they spent 15 months investigating the Waterville Township incidents and that about 10 out of about 20 witnesses interviewed picked Mr. Pitts out of a photo array.
In the Wauseon case, alleged to have occurred in September, 1996, a woman said Mr. Pitts exposed himself to her in the Wal-Mart parking lot on State Rt. 2. A pretrial has been set for Dec. 9.
In the Toledo case, a Lucas County woman testified in Municipal Court that Mr. Pitts exposed himself to her on or about Oct. 1, 1996, in the parking lot of Frank's Nursery & Crafts on Reynolds Road.
The woman became the first witness to testify against Mr. Pitts. She was called to the stand after Judge Francis X. Gorman decided to accept the defense's argument at an earlier motion hearing that the witness may have been influenced more by media pictures of Mr. Pitts than any personal sighting of him committing an indecent act.
But after listening to about 15 minutes of questioning, during which the witness firmly and calmly spoke in detail of the alleged incident, Judge Gorman rejected the defense argument and ordered a Jan. 15 jury trial.
Defense attorneys were limited by Judge Gorman in their questioning of the witness and said they looked forward to the trial when they will be allowed to ask broader questions.
"[Then] the jury [will have] the opportunity to hear the entire package," said Ron Wingate, a Pitts attorney.
*
Perhaps the most potentially controversial incident allegedly involving Michael Pitts never reached the courts.
On April 18, 1995, Mr. Pitts was stopped by a Delta police officer after two boys reported that a man fitting his description and driving the same type of car had been masturbating in front of them while they hit golf balls at the Delta High School ball diamond, according to police reports. The boys, aged 10 and 13, identified Mr. Pitts as the man they had seen in the ball diamond's dugout.
What happened next is hotly contested.
After the incident, according to prosecutors, the police investigation and negotiations between Mr. Pitts's attorneys and Delta solicitors lasted nearly two months.
Some in the Pitts camp said although they believed Delta police had a weak case - for instance, the boys identified Mr. Pitts at night with a spotlight on him while he was sitting in the backseat of a vehicle, rather than in a lineup - they did not want to go court because of the publicity that would result.
Gary Smith, Delta's assistant solicitor, conceded that the method of identification was "one of the weak points" of the case, but he called it "perfectly legal" and said, overall, the prosecution's case against Mr. Pitts "was very strong."
However, Mr. Smith said Delta officials were concerned that if they lost the case Mr. Pitts would file an expensive civil suit against the village. "It would cost a lot of money to defend ourselves," he said.
Another issue involved the two young witnesses, who would have had to appear in court. "We had the evidence on him," said Mr. Smith, "but we would have had to bring two boys to the edge of hell to bring it out."
Finally, the prosecutors said they agreed not to file charges if Mr. Pitts would agree to counseling, which Mr. Smith said Mr. Pitts did.
Mr. Smith said that as part of the negotiation, prosecutors agreed to return to the defense any evidence of Mr. Pitts's counseling sessions with Dr. Gregory Forgac, a Toledo psychologist who frequently deals with sex offenders.
Citing client confidentiality, Dr. Forgac would not comment. However, Mr. Smith said that he did receive confirmation in writing from Dr. Forgac that he and Mr. Pitts talked, though he's not sure how many times.
"He sent back a report indicating that he believed Mr. Pitts was no longer a danger to repeat the kind of conduct that happened at the park," Mr. Smith said. "I don't believe he did a whole lot."
Mr. Smith said he sent the report to Mr. Pitts's attorneys on the Delta case, Victor Tenbrink of Bowling Green and Alan Konop of Toledo, and no longer has a copy. They declined to comment.
Robert Pitts said that even though his brother was in Delta that night, Mr. Smith and Delta police are wrong: "Michael was never charged in Delta because he wasn't [at the ballpark.] He didn't receive any counseling because he didn't need any counseling."
In retrospect, after learning of the other charges against Mr. Pitts, Mr. Smith said he wishes he would have handled the case differently.
"Had we taken him down in '95, these other ones probably would not have occurred. But Delta was not anxious to get involved in this, so we cooperated."
*
Despite the negative publicity, it's been prayer as usual at Cornerstone, according to Robert Pitts. The church's two Sunday services have been averaging about 4,000 people combined - excluding 650 children that attend Cornerstone's church school - and the Thursday night service pulls in anywhere from 1,600 to 2,500 faithful. Hundreds of church members have contributed to Mr. Pitts's legal fund.
"I would say there are a few people I haven't seen, but it's been minimal," Robert Pitts said. "I've seen a lot of new faces. It grows every month."
The Blade has learned of several former Cornerstone members who have left because of the controversy, but all but one - Rosie Demaline of Delta - declined to be interviewed.
Ms. Demaline told Delta police she saw Mr. Pitts driving a green Saab in town around the time of the ball field incident in 1995. She waved; he waved back. She said she was surprised to see him there since no church members lived in the immediate area.
Ms. Demaline didn't learn what happened until the next day, after her two children returned from school. It's the same school attended by the two boys, who told Delta police they saw Mr. Pitts expose himself and masturbate in the high school dugout. Eventually, she made the connection with Mr. Pitts and called several members of the church to inform them, the report said. Two weeks after the incident, Ms. Demaline said Robert Pitts called her.
"He asked me if I thought it was true, and I said `yeah,"' she said. "He just said, `It never happened! It never happened!"'
"I know it did," Ms. Demaline said.
She said Robert Pitts told her she would not be allowed at Cornerstone until she spoke in person either with him or Mr. Banks, the assistant pastor.
Rosie Demaline never bothered returning. Her reasoning?
"I figured if he [Robert Pitts] chewed me out on the phone, then what's he going to do to me in public, when I'm there in front of his face. I stopped going because I can't sit under any kind of teaching from a pastor who says one thing and does another."
Robert Pitts said he may have called Ms. Demaline but not about the Delta case. He disputes her comments. "It's an absolute lie," he said.
*
Despite the resolve of the church and its members to soldier on, Cornerstone's non-denominational independence leaves it isolated from other churches.
Several area pastors declined to comment on Michael Pitts or Cornerstone. Meanwhile, David Nelson, a lay minister affiliated with Trinity Episcopal Church, says the annual fund-raising choir concert for Central City Ministries held at Cornerstone Nov. 2 attracted about 300 people, down from nearly 800 last year at Collingwood Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Nelson, the concert's director, said his group discussed changing venues after they learned of the charges against Mr. Pitts.
"But our feeling was we didn't want to abandon the congregation over a problem that involved their minister."
Aside from poor attendance, some parents from other churches declined to allow their children to participate in the event at Cornerstone, Mr. Nelson said.
"It was kind of tragic."
*
Robert Pitts said his brother has given no thought to taking a leave of absence until the charges against him are resolved. Cornerstone's board of directors does not have the authority to enforce a leave, he said.
Along with Cornerstone, Michael Pitts oversees an affiliate church in Lima with about 400 members and a church in East Toledo. Pastors at seven other churches, mostly in the Midwest, are allied with Michael Pitts but have no formal relationship with Cornerstone, Robert Pitts said.
Mr. Pitts said he and other supporters have been upset by what they believe has been unfair and sensational press coverage of his brother's case.
On Oct. 9, a Metropark spokesman, David Parker, told WTOL-TV, Channel 11, that Metropark investigators had videos showing Mr. Pitts exposing himself on 12 occasions. Two days later, prosecutors asked Maumee Municipal Court Judge Gary Byers to impose a gag order preventing investigators and attorneys from talking to the press about the case. He agreed.
On Nov. 17, The Blade asked Judge Byers to lift the order. On Wednesday, the judge held a hearing on the newspaper's motion and modified the order. Attorneys still can't discuss the cases with reporters, but investigators and others can. The judge also directed attorneys to inform witnesses not the talk about the case.
Judge Byers turned down a defense request to dismiss the Metropark cases.
Mr. Pitts's attorneys argued that the method Metropark investigators used to allow witnesses to identify Mr. Pitts from a photo array was inappropriate and biased because of media coverage.
A viewing of the Metropark's tapes shows two, not 12, incidents that were filmed - on June 16 and June 21 - but the tape is of such poor quality that it's impossible to identify the person being filmed.
In the June 16 scene, the camera - positioned across either Obee Road or Route 295 and obscured by leaves - captures a man of medium height and build running in and out of the woods.
The man is wearing a cap, a T-shirt, and shoes, but nothing else is discernible, particularly any facial characteristics. The scene, beginning at 4:16 p.m., lasted about three minutes.
In the June 21 scene, lasting about five minutes, only a human shadow can be seen moving about. No other details are visible.
In both scenes, cars can be seen speeding by. No incidents of indecent exposures were reported at that location on June 16. However, on June 21 witnesses reported a man exposing himself there, and Mr. Pitts was seen in his car nearby by Metropark officers.
Mr. Pitts's attorneys plan to use as part of their defense in the Toledo and Maumee cases an indecent exposure case involving Dennis Eisel, a former Lucas County sher iff's deputy.
Mr. Eisel is charged with exposing himself on Sept. 30 to a bus driver at Bryne Road and Hill Avenue. His next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 5.
Mr. Pitts and Mr. Eisel share some common physical traits. Both are 5 feet 8 inches tall, weigh between 145 and 160 pounds, have brown hair, fair skin, and high foreheads.
Mr. Eisel, who grew up in Berkey and lives on South Reynolds Road, is two years younger than Mr. Pitts. He worked at the county jail about two years before resigning shortly before the Sept. 30 incident.
*
Psychologists say that men who expose themselves usually do it more than once.
"Men will tell me they have exposed themselves several times a week for years and never get caught," Dr. Forgac said. He is the psychologist who met with Mr. Pitts, according to Gary Smith, Delta's assistant solicitor.
Exhibitionists usually begin exposing themselves as teenagers, said Dr. David Connell, chief clinical officer at Behavioral Connections of Wood County, and coordinator of the sex offender treatment program at the Court Diagnostic and Treatment Center.
Often, a particular incident triggers arousal, Dr. Connell said. Afterward, offenders need to continuously duplicate the circumstances involving that event to achieve similar arousal.
"They tell you they have an uncontrollable urge to do it," Dr. Connell said.
As a result, he added, exhibitionists require extensive therapy after which there is no guarantee they will be cured.
"There's a very high relapse rate; about 50 to 60 per cent," he said.
*
When Michael Pitts talks, people listen. And believe.
As a result, many of his supporters figure that whether he is found guilty or innocent in the courts won't matter.
"It's not for us to judge; God will judge him," said Karen Davis of Perrysburg, a former Cornerstone member who left the church for reasons other than Mr. Pitts's current problems.
Said Robert Pitts: "Michael Pitts will still be pastor of this church 50 years from now regardless of whatever may happen."
Michael Pitts concurs.
In an Oct. 5 sermon he told his followers: "They may talk about me, they may fight me, they done handcuffed me and took my pictures. They can do what they want, but the day I get out, I'm preaching in this church."
Copyright (c) 1998 The Blade
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DATE: Thursday, March 26, 1998
EDITION: CITY FINAL
SECTION: NEWS SECTION 2
PAGE: 16
CHARGE AGAINST PITTS DISMISSED
BY BLADE STAFF WRITER
WAUSEON
A charge of indecent exposure against Michael Pitts, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Maumee, was dismissed yesterday in Fulton County Western District Court.
Jeffrey Robinson, city law director, filed the notice of dismissal because the alleged victim, who is temporarily working in Michigan, was unavailable to testify during the trial that was scheduled to begin today.
Mr. Robinson tried to get the trial delayed until the alleged victim could return to Wauseon, but Judge James Hensal on Tuesday denied the motion for continuance. The alleged victim is to be out of state about 60 days, the law director said.
Judge Hensal ruled that counsel had adequate time to make provisions for witnesses to appear, and barring an unexpected emergency, it is not in the interest of justice to grant a continuance.
The charge was filed against Mr. Pitts in connection with an incident in November, 1995, in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Wauseon. According to his alibi, the minister was meeting with staff members and then went for a haircut when the incident allegedly occurred.
A separate charge of indecent exposure was dismissed in Western District Court earlier this month after the Wauseon law department reviewed the minister's alibi that he had been teaching a Bible doctrines class at his church.
Mr. Pitts is to go on trial Monday in Maumee Municipal Court on several public indecency and criminal trespassing charges.
A misdemeanor charge of public indecency, filed against the minister by Toledo police, was dismissed in Toledo Municipal Court in January after a judge decided the statute of limitations had run out.
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PLEA BARGAIN IN PITTS'S TRIAL LEAVES QUESTIONS
WITNESSES SURE; ALIBIS REMAIN
BY ROBIN ERB BLADE STAFF WRITER
One by one witnesses took the stand last week, swore to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, zeroed in on the figure at the defense table, and said he was - without a doubt - the man who had exposed himself to them.
Were they sure?
Absolutely.
Was there any question in their minds?
None.
And then during lunchbreak on Friday, it all seemed to change. Before jurors were seated again, a somber prosecutor stood before Maumee Municipal Court Judge Gary Byers and asked the court to drop each of the eight public indecency charges and all but two of the seven criminal trespassing charges against Michael Pitts, the minister of the Cornerstone Church in Maumee.
In a carefully worded, brief statement, prosecutor George Runner cited evidentiary problems and settled for two low-degree misdemeanors.
It was over. The seven months of high-profile public indecency allegations - including a cartoon billboard, fodder for radio deejays, and jokes over the copy machines at work - had come to a screeching halt.
So what happened?
An elated Mr. Pitts, sitting in a nearby conference room after the plea agreement, hinted that two of the prosecution's witnesses had perjured themselves and that his attorneys were on the brink of proving that.
"The witnesses changed their stories," he said. If prosecutors push the case, he said, "then I'll have to establish the purposeful intent of other people."
Later, Mr. Runner stood by the state's case.
"I believe all our witnesses were truthful," he said. Still, he conceded "serious evidentiary problems that we were not expecting."
Curiously, attorneys on both sides agreed to unusual conditions of the plea agreement: No one's allowed to talk about reasons for the accord, and none of the prosecution's witnesses can be held liable for their testimony.
Originally Mr. Pitts had been charged with exposing himself to passing motorists on at least eight occasions in 1996 and 1997 from a private drive at Obee Road and State Rt. 295 near Oak Openings Metropark. Additionally, charges were filed against him last fall in Toledo and Wauseon, where he allegedly had exposed himself to women in parking lots.
Last fall, Mr. Pitts faced 18 misdemeanor accounts in the three jurisdictions. In the end, all but two had been dropped.
The problem in most of the cases was that unshakeable eye witness identifications clashed head on with seemingly immovable alibis.
In Maumee, Metroparks Ranger Russell Maneval said he had seen Mr. Pitts at Oak Openings about 3 p.m. June 16, 1997. Video from a hidden surveillance camera a half-hour later showed someone exposing himself to motorists there.
But Mr. Pitts's assistant, Jeff Smith, testified Friday that Mr. Pitts was with him at 3 p.m. June 16, 1997, as they drove toward Lima to deliver some handouts to David Roberts, pastor of Cornerstone Harvest Church in Lima. Mr. Roberts took the stand, further solidifying the alibi.
In another count, prosecutors had filed the original date of the offense as April 17, but - after Mr. Pitts's attorneys filed a notice of alibi saying he was at a conference in Oklahoma - they changed the date to April 4. On one date, Mr. Pitts said he was at a conference in Tulsa, Okla.; in the other, he said he was in Bulgaria. He said he has airline reservations, credit card receipts, and even video tapes and passport stamps that placed him at those places.
The witnesses in the April case, two women friends with their children, said so much time had gone by that, although they remembered the incident, they couldn't be sure of the specific date.
None of this sorted out, proof-positive, who was right and who was wrong. But the confusion easily could have planted that critical bit of reasonable doubt.
Earlier this year, prosecutors in Toledo and Wauseon dropped similar charges after Mr. Pitts either provided an alibi or insisted that the witness provide an exact date of the alleged offense.
In Maumee on Monday, prosecutors walked into the courtroom with their own case riddled with holes and that may have been out of their control.
The so-called smoking gun in the case was a poor-quality video shot by a surveillance camera hidden near Obee and Route 295. Amidst the screen fuzz, a ghostly outline showed only an apparently-naked figure ducking in and out of the woods and popping in front of passing headlights on June 21, 1997.
In an even poorer-quality video on June 16, 1997, white blips on the screen apparently were passing cars and apparently the same figure from the June 21 video.
Apparently, it proved nothing.
Defense attorneys Ron Wingate and Richard Kerger again and again attacked discrepancies between police reports and witness statements.
If one witness knew - absolutely was sure - that he had called police about 7 a.m., why was the police report that day not completed until 3:30 p.m.?
Still, police did confront Mr. Pitts at the scene June 21, 1997, minutes after a Swanton couple called police to report a flasher wearing a red baseball hat. Mr. Pitts, saying he was jogging, was wearing a red baseball hat.
Of course, no one knows what the eight-member jury would have done. And for attorneys, that means it's all a matter of risk-evaluation.
For the defense team, the plea agreement allows Mr. Pitts to avoid possible convictions on sexual-oriented charges that might have affected his leadership abilities at the 5,500-member church he and his family have worked so hard to build. But the same agreement allows prosecutors to claim a win too, albeit small compared to the original 15 counts they originally sought.
Standing outside the courtroom after the verdict, two jurors said they hadn't been able to decide who was telling the truth.
"I thought everyone was convincing and honest," said Barry Martin, a service representative for an engine overhaul shop.
Kristy Disalle, a sixth-grade teacher, said some cases seemed stronger than others. An expert witness on memory had done his job for the defense Friday morning by planting doubts about the motorist's identifications, she said.
Still, the motorists had seemed so sure, she added.
"Was he guilty or not? Well, for which one?" she mused. "The facts hadn't been offered."
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DATE: Tuesday, September 12, 2000
EDITION: CITY FINAL
PAGE: A1
PITTS CONVICTED OF DWI; LICENSE IS SUSPENDED
BY CHRISTINA HALL
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Televangelist Michael Pitts, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Maumee, pleaded no contest and was found guilty yesterday of driving while intoxicated when he was stopped on Aug. 29 by Toledo police at Cherry Street and Central Avenue.
Mr. Pitts, 36, of 4055 South Wilkins Rd., Swanton Township, was ordered to spend three days in a first-offender DWI program and pay $646 in fines and court costs during his arraignment before Magistrate James E. Morgan in Toledo Municipal Court.
The pastor's driver's license was suspended for six months, effective Aug. 29, with the provision that he may drive for work-related reasons.
Mr. Pitts, who paid his fine, was sentenced to three days in jail but that will be suspended if he successfully completes the DWI program.
"This is no different than any of a number of cases I've handled in that area," Jerome Phillips, attorney for Mr. Pitts, said after the decision. "Pastor Pitts decided to resolve the matter in this manner."
Mr. Pitts made no comments during the arraignment. Magistrate Morgan passed sentence without comment.
During a telephone interview at his home last night, Mr. Pitts said he didn't want to argue over "minutia or legalities" in fighting the charges even though he might not have agreed with them.
"I wanted to put this into perspective of the larger picture and get it behind me," Mr. Pitts said.
Although he said the case has not changed him, the pastor said he would become more sensitive to people's needs.
"I think any kind of hardship in life makes one more sensitive to the needs of other people," Mr. Pitts said. "(In the DWI program), I think I will become more sensitive and learn to help people with problems."
In regard to the charges, Mr. Pitts said he was drinking before he drove but he was not intoxicated.
He said his driver's license was in his glove box but the police officers did not allow him to retrieve it during the stop.
The pastor was stopped Aug. 29 when he failed to yield at Cottage and Central avenues to a police car with its emergency lights and siren activated that was responding to a weapon call, police said.
The pastor failed several field sobriety tests and refused to take a breath test, authorities said.
Mr. Pitts was charged with driving under the influence, failure to yield the right of way to a public safety vehicle, and having no operator's license in his possession, authorities said.
The other traffic charges were dismissed during the arraignment.
Mr. Phillips said Mr. Pitts was in the area with a friend who lives nearby and who was celebrating the pastor's birthday and his completion of a book. Mr. Pitts was going to get gasoline when the stop was made, Mr. Phillips said.
On Aug. 31, Mr. Pitts told more than 1,000 followers at Cornerstone that he "had a little wine with dinner" the evening of his arrest, part of a celebration to mark the completion of a book project.
Mr. Pitts told the audience at the church on Reynolds Road that he had been working on a lexicon of Christian terms for several weeks, and an unnamed Toledo couple who lived in the area of his arrest edited the manuscript.
He told his congregation he would pay whatever price is required from his arrest.
"If my actions and deeds have a part to play in it, that's on me. I have to accept responsibility for my actions, and the consequences are mine," he said during the church service "... these things aren't what the media monsters make them to be. I am not the Pope. I don't have people lighting candles around me and praying in my name. I'm not Jesus. And I'm not the devil."
In regard to a question about Mr. Pitts being involved in a hit-skip accident before his arrest, as being investigated by police, Mr. Phillips said he has heard nothing about that and does not think there is anything to the claim.
Mr. Pitts previously faced eight counts of public indecency and seven counts of criminal trespassing in Maumee Municipal Court after motorists reported seeing a man standing in a private driveway at Obee Road and State Rt. 295 exposing himself on seven dates between May, 1996, and July, 1997.
He was given a 60-day jail sentence June 5, 1998, for two criminal trespassing convictions, but 46 of the days were suspended. He spent the remaining 14 days under house arrest, wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet. He was fined $500.
