Word of Faith leader enters Alford pleas after years of delays

A Word of Faith Fellowship leader entered Alford pleas on Sept. 28 in Asheville to two misdemeanor charges stemming from an alleged 2013 assault on former church member Matthew Fenner, bringing a criminal case that had gone years without a retrial closer to an end.

Brooke McFadden Covington, 68, pleaded to false imprisonment and simple assault in Buncombe County Superior Court, according to court records. The false imprisonment charge replaced a felony count of second-degree kidnapping.

An Alford plea is a guilty plea without an admission that the defendant committed the crime. Its name comes from a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving a North Carolina case. The defendant accepts the legal consequences of the plea while maintaining innocence. North Carolina law requires a judge to find a factual basis before accepting a guilty plea. The plea does not mean a jury decided the disputed facts.

Judge Alan Thornburg placed Covington on probation for two years under a conditional discharge. She must complete 30 hours of community service at a place benefiting children or young adults. Her first year of probation will be supervised and her second unsupervised. The court set a review hearing for Sept. 25, 2028.

The order lists suspended jail terms of 45 days for false imprisonment and 30 days for simple assault. Under the conditional discharge, the court has not entered a judgment of guilt. If Covington completes its conditions, state law requires the court to withdraw her pleas and dismiss the proceedings. If she violates them, the court may enter a judgment of guilt.

Fenner has said church members held him down, choked and beat him during a January 2013 prayer session at the church’s Spindale compound. Covington has maintained her innocence and previously said witnesses were prepared to testify that they saw no assault. Her first trial ended in a mistrial in 2017 after the jury foreman brought outside research into deliberations.

The years without a retrial became the basis of a separate legal fight. Fenner, represented by Rutherford County attorney Andrew LaBreche, sought to remove District Attorney Ted Bell, alleging that Bell had mishandled and delayed the prosecutions. Bell denied wrongdoing.

Independent counsel W. Otis Walker IV concluded that the evidence did not meet the legal standard to remove Bell, although the length of the delay warranted scrutiny. Bell referred the remaining criminal cases for appointment of a special prosecutor on January 22, 2026.

After the removal effort failed, Superior Court Judge William Stetzer ordered a three-year suspension of LaBreche’s law license and awarded Bell legal fees. LaBreche appealed. The North Carolina Court of Appeals put the suspension on hold while it considers the appeal. The stay allows LaBreche to keep practicing for now; it does not decide whether the suspension was proper.

Covington’s plea addresses the criminal charges against her. LaBreche’s appeal remains a separate legal matter.

In a statement, attorney Joshua Farmer, on behalf of The Word of Faith Fellowship regarding State v. Brooke Covington, told WCAB News,

“The resolution of this matter today marks the end of thirteen years of ‘lawfare’ against Brooke Covington and The Word of Faith Fellowship, instigated by Matthew Fenner and maintained by the State of North Carolina.From the outset, we have been adamant that Brooke is falsely accused. Our prayer and our ministry are not violent or abusive. Matthew was not mistreated. The State tried Brooke in 2017 and failed to secure a conviction. Since then and for nearly nine years, the State refused to bring this matter to trial, clearly showing how baseless it knew its case to be.In the resolution of these matters today, Brooke Covington maintained her innocence, as she has steadfastly done since the beginning. Further, after the passage of two years, the effect of today’s order will be nullified, and then these matters will be completely expunged from Brooke’s record.The fact that the State resolved these matters with Brooke in a manner that required no admission of guilt and with a straightforward path toward complete expungement of her record clearly shows how little confidence the State placed in the credibility of the alleged ‘victim,’ Matthew Fenner.”

The available public records may be found on eCourts (Case No. 25CR013442-100 / Case No. 15CR000155-800) and/or DocumentCloud.