S304: The Prophet - Allegations of Cult Abuse and Corruption

Javier: When Nancy Burnette was appointed by the courts to be a guardian ad litem, she knew her job wasn't gonna be easy. A guardian ad litem is someone who represents kids in the foster care system. It's her job to place children in a home that's best suited for that child, and if she doesn't get it right, her decision can cause lasting damage on these vulnerable children. This was a challenge that Nancy was willing to take. So put yourself in Nancy's shoes for a second. If you had to place a child in the custody of a Word of Faith Fellowship family, what would you do? I'm Javier Leva, and this is Pretend Radio, season three: The Prophet. One of Nancy's first cases was to find a new foster home for four siblings.

Nancy Burnette: I became a guardian. I was given, uh, three babies first, and then a fourth was born during the 14 months that I had them, and they started out in one foster home.

Javier: The biological parents were mentally handicapped and were unable to properly take care of the children. This is all happening in Cleveland County, the county next to Rutherford County, where the Word of Faith Fellowship is located.

Nancy Burnette: I've lived in Cleveland County for a long time. Never heard of Word of Faith Fellowship before in my life.

Javier: It's only 30 minutes away, right?

Nancy Burnette: Yeah. I never heard of them before.

Javier: Nancy had no idea who Jane Whaley was or what the Word of Faith Fellowship was about because at that time their reputation wasn't well known. So when Nancy found out where two of the children were going to be placed, she didn't think twice about it. But Nancy's boss on the other hand, the director of the Ad Litem program, Dawn Scoggins, well, she was pretty alarmed.

Nancy Burnette: Her exact words were, "Not no, but hell no, they're not putting my babies in a Word of Faith home." I had no idea what she was talking about. And I said, "Who?" And she said, "When you go into the courtroom, you'll see them. You'll know exactly who they are as soon as you see them." I was like, "Okay." So I thought, "Okay." They went through the process and gave the kids to this family. She was the first one to say, "I don't like it." But I had no idea. I had no, no information. I had no nothing.

Javier: Regardless of their hesitation, the kids were placed temporarily with a Word of Faith Fellowship family. Nancy and her boss decided to pay the boys a visit as part of their court-ordered obligation.

Nancy Burnette: I went for my first meeting with them, and we walked in, my, my supervisor and I walked in. There was not a gate at the bottom of the steps. It was at the top of the stairs, which led me to believe that the children were not downstairs very much, that they were upstairs. I just didn't feel good about it. I called Dawn and I was like, "I don't feel good about the boys being here. There's something that's off. The house is too perfect." When babies go into houses, they destroy everything. I walk into this house and it's like a white rug with a white sofa and a white chair and a chandelier that is so big that it literally is almost touching the table in the middle. Um, it's a very small home, but everything is white and burgundy and gold and so perfect. No, not, not a thing out of place, and it's just suspicious. It's just not... It's strange

Javier: Because you're a mother, right?

Nancy Burnette: I'm a grandmother. Yeah, I'm a mother and a grandma. My, my granddaughter left last night. My house was destroyed this morning. You know? That's just what kids do. And when we walked up the steps and we opened the door, went in there, and Cody was there, and he was so excited to see me, "Hey, Ms. Nancy," you know? And I reached down to hug him, and he kinda resisted, and I thought, "Well, that's strange." He-

Javier: So you started getting a weird vibe from-

Nancy Burnette: It was a weird vibe because Cody would shut up whenever his, his foster parent came over there, and he wasn't playing like he normally would play, and he kept looking down. And I was like, "What's the matter, buddy? You know, what, what's wrong?"

Javier: Then the second child comes out, and Nancy notices that he was acting a little strange.

Nancy Burnette: Finally, I, Timothy came out. They brought Timothy in, and his head was just rolling around, rolling around. I mean, he was almost sedated. And I said, "Is he sick?" "No, no, he's just been taking a nap." He couldn't wake up. I mean, his head would literally fall back and forth, and it would just... His eyes would just open and close, open and close. And I just, I looked at my supervisor. I'm shaking my head. I'm like, "I've known these kids for 14 months, and I have never seen this child this way." Cody's usually bouncing off the wall, "Look at this. Look at this. Look at this." Maybe that was where my medical background came in because I knew that wasn't just basic lethargica. That was induced by some type of a medication. It had to be. Because babies wake up from naps all the time. They might still be sleepy. They'll put their head down, but they'll lift it back up, and they'll eventually wake up. He never did. He never got to that stage.

Javier: One day, Nancy showed up to the Word of Faith Fellowship School unannounced.

Nancy Burnette: I showed up at the school, and I pulled up in front of the school, walked in, and everybody was just kinda like, "Hmm." They were looking at me like, "Who is this lady standing in our school?" I showed them my credentials, told them who I was, told them that I was there to see Timothy and Cody, and I waited. 20 minutes pass, I don't see anybody.

Javier: Finally, after waiting an extraordinarily long time, Nancy was able to finally visit one of the boys.

Nancy Burnette: They wanted me to stay in there with everybody, and I said, "I need to be alone with him so I can talk to him a little bit." Hmm. Okay. Well, you can be alone with him out there in the breezeway. Okay. We sat on steps like these where everybody was walking around in and out.

Javier: Nancy says she takes Cody and tries to find a private place for them to talk, but everywhere she went, people would follow her.

Nancy Burnette: I go back inside and Jane, the foster father, the teacher, they're all right there where I am. And I'm like, "This is nuts."

Javier: Nancy asked Cody,

Nancy Burnette: And I asked him if he was happy and he would shrug his shoulders. Are you having fun at school? And he would shrug his shoulders. And he was just like, "Please don't leave me, Miss Nancy. Please don't leave me, Miss Nancy." And I said, "I'll be back. I'll come to see you again soon." Well, before I left, Jane was like, "Oh," you know, clapping her hands, "Oh, come and give grandmother some love. You know, come and give grandmother a hug." And he said, "No." I mean, his body postured out. He said, "No." And she said, "Oh, you stop. You come over here." She was trying to pull him in and he was trying to keep his space. And he said, "No," and he pushed back. And she was you know, laughed it off, but you could tell that everybody around her was just in awe. Couldn't believe that this kid had just done that. He said no, and he was pushing away with his body, pushing his face away. That was all I needed to know. That to me was it. Nancy and

Javier: her supervisor wanted to see the boys again. This time they decided to show up at the church unannounced. Also, you have to remember that during this time, the Associated Press articles exposing the church haven't come out, so the church didn't have the guards at the entrance.

Nancy Burnette: So Don and I showed up at the church unannounced. And

Javier: they asked to see the boys.

Nancy Burnette: They walk in, and again, Timothy is bobblehead, can't hold himself up, can't lift his head up off her shoulder. And I look over at Cody, he's the same way. His eyes are rolling around in his head. And I was like... She's like, "Oh, we were up all night with them. They had a bad night." His hand will go up and it'll fall. His hand will go up and it'll just fall. And I said, "Something is wrong with Cody. Something is wrong with him." And Don was like, "Yeah, something's wrong

Javier: The church service started and everyone began singing. Nancy says that the music was so loud she could barely hear her own thoughts.

Nancy Burnette: But I had watched this child go from a child that smiled and played and loved to a kid who's laying during basically a concert with his head almost asleep, and he would be prompted to hold his hand up and put it down All of a sudden everything comes to a stop. Total silence. You could hear a pin drop. And I'm like, "Finally, it's over." Yeah, they stopped the singing short of, of what they should have for me because I was causing a strife. They just assumed that I was gonna be a part of their service, and that's not why I was there. And I said, "Well, I apologize, but that's not why I'm here today. I'm here just strictly and solely to observe. I, I apologize for not participating, but it's not why I'm here."

Javier: So they stop everything, and now is everyone just looking at you?

Nancy Burnette: It was the unraveling of the Earth.

Javier: Nancy says Jane walks up to her and her boss and starts screaming at them.

Nancy Burnette: "God gave us these children. DSS gave us these children. You're nobody to tell me." And she just went on and on, just her, her finger was getting closer and closer to me.

Javier: DSS, by the way, is the Department of Social Services. And

Nancy Burnette: the closer she got, the less comfortable I felt, and I had nowhere to go. I told Jane, I s- extend my arm, I said, "You need to back up." I said, "You are entirely too close to me. If you wanna talk to me, we can, but you can't be this close to me. You gotta back up." So instantly your fight or flight kicks in, right? And I'm thinking, "We need to get the hell out of here right now." That's what's going through my mind. So Dawn and I sit back down, and I looked at her and I said, "We need to go now. We need to go." And she said, "We do need to go." We couldn't get out. We couldn't get out either way. We were kind of stuck. And when I turned to leave, Cody sat up with everything in him, and he extended his arm. And he said, "Ms. Nancy, please don't leave me." He said, "Don't leave." And I turned around and I walked behind her, 'cause his head was on her right shoulder. I walked behind her and I held his hand, and I said, "Ms. Nancy, we'll be back, baby. I'll, I'll see you soon." And he kept reaching out, reaching back, reaching back.

Javier: Nancy and Dawn walked outside and started making a beeline for the car. They were stopped by a woman named Lori Cornelius. Remember this name, Lori Cornelius. I will tell you all about her in a few minutes.

Nancy Burnette: We go to get in the car, we're blocked in. Our vehicle's blocked in. And Lori Cornelius is following us out telling us, "No, it's not what, what it seems to be. Let me tell you what happened." I was like, "No, no." I said, "I am 43 years old. I saw what just happened." I said, "No, really, now. Somebody needs to move their car or we're gonna move the car." We were both just shaking, but she physically was shaking. And we were just in disbelief. We were, we were representatives of the court, and we went into a situation, and we were approached with so much aggression that it was hard to believe that these children might be safe there. We got in the car and she said, "They're out of there. They've got to come out of there. This is not safe."

Javier: Nancy and her boss recommended that the boys be placed in a different home.

Nancy Burnette: So ultimately after that, I wrote my, wrote my report up, stated my concerns, told them exactly what happened, yada,

Javier: yada. But instead of removing the kids out of the church, Nancy Burnette was kicked off the case.

Nancy Burnette: So Wednesday I got a call from Dawn, and she was like, "Yeah, that's not gonna happen." We were... They were supposed to be removed Friday. She called me Wednesday, and she's like, "Yeah, it's not gonna happen." I said, "Why?" "Because there's a federal injunction in place that says we have to leave them there, so I'm taking you off the case." So they took the case away from me.

Javier: The kids were ultimately adopted.

Nancy Burnette: It, it's hurtful to see them and know that their lives could have been much different in a, in a home outside of there

Javier: Well, that's just one side of the story

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: My name is Hedy

Javier: Traxel, and- Hedy is the woman who adopted Cody and Timothy ...

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: that came recently out about me and my husband.

Javier: This audio was taken from the Word of Faith Fellowship YouTube channel I

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: really would like to tell my side of the story so you will know what truth is about what happened.

Javier: Hedy is trying to explain why they decided to foster the boys from Cleveland County rather than Rutherford County, where she and her husband live. Trust me, this is an important fact. I'll explain in a minute

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: Our journey started in September 2011. We called the DSS in, uh, Rutherford County.

Javier: So instead of fostering the child from her own county, Rutherford County

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: Their classes were starting on a Monday, which my husband had other obligations, so we couldn't do Monday nights.

Javier: Hedy and her husband decided to look in the county next door, Cleveland County, because she said it was more convenient for them

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: So they suggested to look into s- different places, different, uh, counties around the area here to see which one would be suitable for us. So we looked into some options, and really option, Cleveland County was the best option for us, was on Thursday night. So we chose to go to Cleveland County DSS.

Javier: And guess who happens to be a social worker in Cleveland County? A Word of Faith Fellowship member by the name of Lori Cornelius. Remember Lori? She's the one who stopped Nancy in the church parking lot as she was rushing into her car. Here's Hedy explaining why there's nothing nefarious going on. Lori Cornelius had nothing to do with her getting those boys. It was just a pure coincidence

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: Well, the other accusation I really don't understand is the thing about Lori Cornelius, saying that I knew that she was working in Shelby. I didn't even know she was working in Shelby.

Javier: Shelby, by the way, is Cleveland County's largest city.

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: I knew her from church, but I really didn't know where she was working. So it was just a falsely accusation. I was very private about the adoption that I wanted children because I thought it was a, a very personal matter, so I really didn't tell anybody.

Javier: She says that this is much ado about nothing. Her boys are very happy.

Word of Faith Fellowship Member: The children came indoor, and my oldest child, all what he said was like, "This is my new mommy and my new daddy, and I'm here, gonna be here forever." And he... It was the most precious, precious things. We were knitted together and bonded from day one. The love in our hearts for our children, they love us, we love them. The accusations from Nancy Burnette, I really don't understand those accusations because here she says there's no progress with those children. How can you say there's no progress with those children if you have not seen them in five, six years? I mean, when they were s- given to us for care, I only saw her once or twice for a few minutes, and that was all. I never saw her, I never saw her again. And really, after we had them in care, short after that, she was dismissed from our case, so she never really inter- interacted with us ever again. I mean, really, if you ask me, Nancy Burnette is, is only out to have her own name, and really she's a self-proclaimed expert. She was never, she was never a DSS worker. She was never a investigator. She was none of that. She was just a volunteer That's all what she was

Nancy Burnette: You know, Jane Whaley says, "Oh, she was never paid." Well, you know what? Then that means I was doing it because it was the right thing to do. That's kinda how I look at people who do, do things voluntary. It's out of the, it's, it's out of a place in your heart that money can't buy and that morally nobody can touch because I wasn't doing it for any other reason than to help a child.

Javier: But this story is not just about one family. It's about the long list of custody battles that have always seemed to go in favor of the church and the claims of child abuse that seem to go nowhere. John Cooper, who you heard from in season one, called the Department of Social Services and reported that he had witnessed abuse inside the church. He said he hit dead end after dead end.

John David Cooper: When I was on the phone with DSS trying to make a report, um, they kinda kept asking me questions about, um, you know, uh, what is going on in the home, and they kinda kept asking about the home, and I, I was trying to explain to them that this is not, um... Th- there is abuse that happens in the homes, but, like, what I'm trying to tell you about is the abuse that happens in the school, the abuse that happens in the church, and it, it doesn't really seem that their system is set up to handle that.

Javier: Eventually, the Department of Social Services investigated and found nothing.

John David Cooper: DSS came in. Jane Whaley was allowed to be in the home for these interviews, present, uh, intimidating, um, obviously, the children. Um, they were coached very specifically on what to say. Of course, the children said what they were told to say. Of course, the DSS found nothing, um, and the report was closed.

Javier: But the county was still getting flooded with complaints about child abuse. This led to a settlement between the county and the church that would basically shut down most reports of abuse. The settlement states, and I quote, "Word of Faith has the right to raise children in the Word of Faith religious tradition free from unwarranted government intrusion, including the right to have their children participate in the religious practice of strong prayer and discipleship." In other words, church members are free to scream at their kids during blasting prayers, and it won't be considered abuse. The settlement states, and I quote, "Blasting prayer or discipleship as practiced by Word of Faith Fellowship members cannot constitute abuse or neglect within the meaning of the law and the Constitution of the State of North Carolina or the Constitution of the United States." Unquote. All right, let me give you an example. Mm-hmm. A baby is crying out of control. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, uh, you know how babies just cry uncontrollably.

Word of Faith Fellowship Choir: Mm-hmm.

Javier: If the church members hold that baby down and blast that baby, is that protected?

Nancy Burnette: the verbiage is protected. The actual physical pinning of a child to the floor is not protected. The barrel holds that they do on these children where they put their back against their chest and squeeze them, hold their arms down and squeeze them, it's been outlawed in our country as a means of restraint for children because it restricts their ability to breathe and in some instances have caused death in, in young people.

Javier: Following this settlement, 20 pending cases were ultimately closed and five cases were expunged.

Nancy Burnette: No. Them holding this child down to the floor and straddling them or none of that's protected. It is, it is emotional abuse. If you wanna sit and scream in somebody's ear and let the child run around and around and around and around and not pay you any attention, yeah, that's protected. But when you physically grab somebody and force them to the ground against their will, that is not protected by anything. That is called false imprisonment. That's called kidnapping. That's called assault. That's called whatever you wanna call it

Javier: John Cooper vividly remembers being told how to talk to authorities.

John David Cooper: So they, they coached us, like, very specifically on what we had to say to the DSS. I, I guess my question would be, you know, how do you, um, deal with this situation where you have a very tightly run organization, um, Word of Faith, that controls all the witnesses, controls all the people involved, tells them what to say, and they're going to say that? And, um, so how do you, you know, a- as the, the officials in this county, how do you do something about that?

Javier: Remember Lori Cornelius? You know, the woman who stopped Nancy at the church parking lot and told her that things were not what they seemed?

Nancy Burnette: Lori Cornelius, which was a social worker for Cleveland County DSS.

Javier: She's accused of coaching children on how to talk with authorities.

Nancy Burnette: Um, I think whenever we exposed it, she couldn't deny it. They weren't sure what kind of proof that we had, so she ultimately was allowed to resign. She was never terminated, but she was allowed to resign her position at Cleveland County.

Javier: It wasn't just Lori Cornelius who was being accused of coaching children on how to talk to authorities. Did you know that Jane Whaley's son-in-law was an assistant DA at a nearby county? His name is Frank Webster, and former members say that he, too, would coach kids on how to talk to DSS. Both Lori Cornelius and Frank Webster have since stepped down from their roles. If true, the corruption allegations gets worse. A former member claims that when he was in the church, the district attorney at the time for Rutherford County, Brad Greenway, gave the church a heads-up that a grand jury investigation was coming. That DA is also accused of delaying other criminal charges against the church. Then there's the Rutherford County Sheriff. Here's Nancy Burnette again.

Nancy Burnette: The sheriff is horrible. I've never seen anybody allow things to happen like this man has. He absolutely has put off allegations of murder for hire, um, child abuse, um, coercion, just you, you name anything. I- Witness, witness, witness intimidation constantly. Nothing ever happens for the victims at Word of Faith.

Javier: And what's his tie to the sh- church? I mean, like, what, what, what would he have to gain from this?

Nancy Burnette: Well, we have, we have recordings of him saying that, you know, he wouldn't want anybody to infringe on his religious beliefs. But there's a, a fine line between religion and abuse. I mean, that's why they have laws to protect people from extreme physical assaults. It doesn't matter if it's in the name of God, it's still illegal, and he refuses to pursue charges for these people They're really deep in the political party up there, in the Republican Party, and they have fundraisers together. Um, they have events together. The DA, the sheriff, and multiple Word of Faith members, they're all in the same room breaking bread together.

Javier: The district attorney I mentioned earlier, Brad Greenway, is no longer in office. The new DA, his name is Ted Bell, and when he got elected, there was new hope for former members. But lately, people are saying that he's caving into pressure from his party to back off the church. I met up with District Attorney Ted Bell after the survivors forum in Spindale. What was your reaction from this, uh, this town hall?

Brad Greenway: Um, as the district attorney, it's probably better for me not to comment. And

Javier: why is that?

Brad Greenway: Why is that? Because we've got the pending cases, and the rules of the state bar prohibit me m- from making comments in matters that are currently before the court.

Javier: But your office is a main character in this story in ter- What's that? Your, your office is a main character in this story because it feels like, like, uh, the people in the community have a hard time trusting, you know, how, how independent you are.

Brad Greenway: Um, yeah, there are a lot of false rumors going around that, that we're very independent. Um, I can say that we've submitted three separate requests to the SBI for investigations on the allegations that we talked about here, and but we haven't received any results back from those investigations. So until we do, we're, we just can't... We're, we're stuck.

Javier: And I also met with a candidate who was running to replace Chris Francis as sheriff.

Steve Theodoropoulos: I'm Steve Theodoropoulos. I'm running for sheriff here in Rutherford County. I am.

Javier: What, what do you plan to do if you get elected to, um, to address this situation?

Steve Theodoropoulos: Well, I'm glad you asked that question. Uh, my approach is a no nonsense approach, much more transparent and clear approach.

Javier: Yeah, because I, I get the sense that the, the citizens here have, like, no faith in the institution.

Steve Theodoropoulos: Right, and I wanna restore the faith. I, I didn't come here as an outsider to change the culture. I wanna make that very clear. I came here to embrace the culture here. I love it here, but I do want to make the sheriff's office more transparent, more accountable, and, uh, more user friendly.

Javier: And then there's Wayne Guffey. Wayne Guffey is a distant cousin of Jane Whaley, and he's running for sheriff too. If Wayne Guffey wins, well, former members say that that's gonna be the beginning of the end for the Word of Faith Fellowship. They'll no longer have the sheriff's office in their pocket. But despite his efforts, Wayne Guffey lost big time. He only got 29% of the vote. His opponent, the incumbent, Chris Francis, remains sheriff of Rutherford County. What I guess what I wanna ask you is that if the sheriff i- in town is part of the problem the way you describe it to be, and Guffey, you know, kind of assumes this role as this, like, you know, sign of hope, I guess, for, for these, um, people who have left the church, why didn't the community rally for him when he was running for sheriff? Why did he lose?

Nancy Burnette: I don't have answers to that. Um, we were all very shocked that he lost

Javier: The allegations don't stop here. There are actually reports that Jane Whaley has human slaves trapped and working for the church for free. That's next time on Pretend Radio So what do you guys think of season three so far? I'm sure you have tons of questions. This season is so different, but it's already making waves. Pretend Radio was featured on the front page of Sunday's Daily Courier. It's the local paper in Spindale, North Carolina. It's a great article, but what makes it even more interesting is that the church responded to my show. In fact, they have a lot to say about some of the unaired episodes on Patreon. If you're not on Patreon this season, well, you're missing out. To read the article, click on the links in my show notes. To listen to the next episode, go to pretendradio.org and click on the donate button. I'm posting episodes as soon as I finish them. Plus, there's tons of bonus content, like this audio of Jane talking about Nancy Burnette's first visit to the church.

Jane Whaley: So Nancy comes up here as the guardum malitum. She was to take us down this... She believed all the lies before she ever came in here. She was like a witch when she came in here So that night I called the supervisor, but I didn't get her. But she called me back the next day and I told her, I, I walked her through every attack we'd had, what was true, what was a lie. And really, this supervisor got rid of Nancy

Javier: You don't want to miss it. And lots of people have been writing me and sharing their personal stories. I'm working on a blog that corresponds with each episode. So follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram so you won't miss it. And if you have a story to share, just shoot me an email, javier@pretendradio.org, or follow me on Twitter. Also, I am so excited to announce that Pretend Radio is going to be attending the first ever True Crime Podcast Festival on July 13th, 2019 in Chicago. Trust me, start planning now. It's going to be worth traveling to. This is your chance to mingle with podcasters you listen to regularly. And there will be live recordings of episodes and panel discussions. In fact, I'm speaking at one of the panels. Some of the shows registered are All Crime No Cattle, Criminology, Canadian True Crime, Mugshot, Swindled, Sword and Scale, and many, many more. You really don't want to miss it. Go to the website tcpf2019.com to find out more information on tickets and hotels. Prices do go up the closer we get to the event, so you don't want to wait. And when you buy your ticket, make sure you mention Pretend Radio on the ticket registration survey. This is going to be a blast. I can't wait to meet everyone at the True Crime Podcast Festival. For more information, see the show notes. All right, well I'm signing off. But before I go, I haven't mentioned this in a while, but Pretend Radio's theme music was composed by the talented Joe Basile with thechicken.net. And if you need custom music scored for your videos, game, podcast, whatever, Joe is your guy. thechicken.net. Okay, now check out these awesome podcasts. See you next week