New evidence presented in Woodland Park ministry court hearing

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (KRDO) -- New evidence was presented on Tuesday in the ongoing battle between a Woodland Park ministry and public health leaders.

Andrew Wommack Ministries (AWMI) has another in-person religious conference starting next week where hundreds of people are expected to attend.

Colorado's Attorney General and public health leaders want a judge to force the ministry to comply with public health orders, including capping large indoor gatherings to 175 people, the mask mandate, and social distancing requirements.

The ministry believes they have a constitutional right to meet without capacity restrictions and said they would not enforce conference attendees to wear masks.

The Teller County Administrator Sheryl Decker testified on Monday that five conferences hosted by AWMI since July were in violation of the public health orders and resulted in COVID-19 outbreaks.

While testifying, the administrator also revealed that AWMI failed to provide all the necessary information to contact tracers so they could complete their work for some of those outbreaks.

Lawyers for the ministry took aim at how health officials connected outbreaks to an event and said the system is flawed. AWMI's legal counsel also said it believed it was unconstitutional to restrict religious gatherings but not other businesses like casinos.

Teller County public works officials installed traffic devices to try and estimate how many people attended AWMI's October minister's conference, according to the county administrator.

The county administrator told the judge the traffic tracker counted 1657 vehicles going in and out of the entrance to the October conference in less than 24 hours.

Health officials said they are currently investigating COVID-19 cases potentially connected to the October event but didn't say how many cases.

There is another AWMI in-person conference scheduled for November 6.

Closing arguments are set to begin Wednesday morning. It's unclear when the judge may make a ruling on the restraining order, but health officials are hopeful that it will be made before the next conference.

An attorney for AWMI told KRDO on Tuesday that he doesn't believe the state or county proved their burden or case against the ministry.