Waterloo - A lawyer who ended his quest to sue the Joyce Meyer Ministries for wrongful death in the murder of a former employee's family said Tuesday he still may file such a suit later.
Jack Carey, the lawyer, said he expects the pending first-degree murder trial of Christopher Coleman to "produce a treasure trove" of information to support a civil claim.
Coleman, former chief of security for the televangelist ministry, is accused of killing his wife, Sheri Coleman, 31, and their sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, whose bodies were found May 5 in their home in Columbia, Ill.
Carey filed a civil suit against Coleman on behalf of Sheri Coleman's family and named the ministry as a "respondent in discovery," a process to obtain information to decide whether to add the respondent as a defendant.
But earlier this month, Judge Dennis Doyle ruled that Carey missed a deadline to take sworn statements from Meyer and others at the ministry. Faced with moving ahead on limited information, Carey filed a motion to dismiss them as respondents, and Doyle approved it Tuesday.
Carey claims the ministry knew or should have known that Christopher Coleman was a threat to his family because he had an extramarital affair and had been the source of anonymous threats made against his own family
But the ministry, based in Jefferson County, has said it knew only that Coleman was having marital problems and had provided the couple with counseling.
Search warrants indicate that Columbia police were aware of threatening messages sent to Coleman's work e-mail long before the killings. It's unclear what information the early police investigation revealed.
Mike King, a lawyer for the ministry, said Tuesday there was no settlement to get Carey to stop the civil claim. King applauded the ministry's removal from the proceedings and said it shows there was no evidence.
Police have suggested that Coleman may have killed his family to escape his marriage without sacrificing his job to a no-divorce policy. The ministry has said there is no such policy.
On Tuesday, Carey provided documents in which the ministry denied having counseled the couple through an employee assistance program. Asked about the apparent discrepancy regarding counseling for the Colemans, King insisted thatthe ministry has been "absolutely truthful" with Carey.
