Judge orders Andrew Wommack Ministries to follow COVID-19 guidelines
WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (KRDO) -- A judge has issued an order requiring Andrew Wommack Ministries (AWMI) to comply with Colorado's COVID-19 public health orders after state and county officials reported the ministry violated state orders five times by hosting hundreds of people at indoor events since July.
AWMI has an in-person conference scheduled to begin on Thursday. The ministry says it will comply with all COVID-19 health guidelines, including capacity limits, mask-wearing and social distancing. Lawyers for AWMI said they are already working on an appeal for the latest court order.
Wednesday, AWMI announced that it did cancel an in-person event scheduled for December. The Heart of Christmas musical performance will instead be broadcast online. Lawyers for the ministry said on Wednesday that the cancellation was not related to the judge's order.
The order from 4th Judicial District Judge David Prince came down Tuesday afternoon and it requires AWMI to follow the state social distancing, mask-wearing, and capacity limits.
Public health leaders claim that several AWMI in-person events during the pandemic have resulted in large COVID-19 outbreaks.
The judge also granted Teller County and state public health officials access to determine if the ministry is following the public health orders.
AWMI believes the state public health orders are unconstitutional and discriminate against religious events. The ministry also argued the method public health leaders use to connect a COVID-19 outbreak to an event or facility is flawed.
Judge Prince disagreed with AWMI's argument and wrote in the order that prior AWMI conferences show evidence that "the level of injury likely to result from such a conference in violation of the pandemic regulations." Prince also noted that he believed AWMI was deceptive in its dealings with health officials to avoid compliance with COVID-19 guidelines.
"The evidence credibly attributed 24% of Teller County’s total cases to a prior AWMInc event, which also accounted for 45% of Teller County’s two-week case average. The evidence credibly established that AWMInc’s
conference activity is likely one of Teller County’s primary sources of the spread of COVID-19 and a primary importer of the virus to the community," Judge Prince wrote.
Teller County officials released a statement Wednesday morning saying that they expect AWMI to comply with the court order and adhere to capacity limits, the mask mandate, and social distancing requirements.
"Teller County is pleased that the court issued a thorough and well-reasoned opinion that upholds the State’s reasonable, non-discriminatory public health orders to help protect our community from the spread of COVID-19," Teller County Administrator Sheryl Decker said.
Decker told KRDO that county health officials are investigating an apparent COVID-19 outbreak to AWMI events in September and October. So far, health officials said they had linked 13 positive COVID-19 cases and 30 more probable cases to those events.
If AWMI violates the judge's order, ministry leaders could be held in contempt of court, which could result in fines and jail time.
On Wednesday, AWMI said it doesn't have any other in-person conferences planned until March 2021.
