Brooke Covington

Introduction

Brooke Covington is a longtime leader of the Word of Faith Fellowship church in Spindale, North Carolina, who has stood accused for nearly a decade of taking part in the alleged assault and imprisonment of a former congregant, Matthew Fenner, during a 2013 prayer session at the church’s compound. Her retrial on second-degree kidnapping and simple assault charges was set to begin in Buncombe County in late September 2026, eight years after her first trial ended in a mistrial, making her the last remaining defendant in one of the most closely watched religious-abuse cases in the country. Covington has maintained she is innocent.

Background Information

Word of Faith Fellowship is a nondenominational Protestant church founded in 1979 by Sam and Jane Whaley in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains between Charlotte and Asheville; members consider Jane Whaley a prophet. The church had about 700 members in North Carolina a decade ago, but a sworn statement from a former church leader said membership had dwindled to roughly 300 to 400 people. In 2017, The Associated Press published a series detailing former members’ allegations of abuse, based on interviews with dozens of former congregants around the world, hours of secretly recorded conversations with church leaders and hundreds of pages of law enforcement, court and child welfare documents. The AP reported that the church controlled almost every aspect of members’ lives — whom they married, what they studied and whether they could attend college — and that members were regularly slapped, choked and thrown to the floor during high-decibel group prayer.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The claims in this section are allegations from prosecutors and from Matthew Fenner, as reported in fetched sources. They were never admitted by Covington, who has maintained she is innocent, and they remain unadjudicated: her first trial ended in a mistrial and no verdict has ever been reached against her.

Matthew Fenner joined Word of Faith as a teenager in 2010 with his mother. He was at a service at the church’s compound in Spindale when members including Covington began what the church called a “blasting” session on him, according to Fenner: members held him down, choked and beat him for two hours while others prayed to expel “homosexual demons.” Prosecutors said Covington held down and beat the one-time member of the group more than 13 years ago. Covington was first tried in 2017 on second-degree kidnapping and simple assault charges, but that trial ended in a mistrial after the jury foreman brought his own research into deliberations. The case was later turned over to a special prosecutor after Fenner’s lawyer, Andrew LaBreche, accused District Attorney Ted Bell of siding with Word of Faith, saying Bell failed to investigate new evidence and made a deal to drop the felony kidnapping charge against Covington; a judge rejected the removal request and instead suspended LaBreche’s law license for three years over what the judge called his “repeated acts of dishonesty,” a ruling LaBreche is appealing. A gag order had been placed on Fenner, Covington, the lawyers and potential witnesses while the case sat in limbo.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The AP’s 2017 investigation drew international attention to the small Rutherford County church, describing a congregation whose former members alleged systematic abuse and a church whose leaders denied all of it. The church said the allegations made to the AP were false and made by “certain former members” out to target the church, and that it does not condone abuse. Jane Whaley denied that she or other church leaders ever abused Word of Faith members, saying any discipline would be protected by the Constitution’s freedom-of-religion tenet. The case also damaged the professionals around it: the dispute over DA Bell’s handling ended with defense-side attorney LaBreche’s law license suspended and the trial handed to a new prosecutor in a new jurisdiction.

Current Status

Covington’s retrial was set to begin Monday in Buncombe County, according to court records — a venue moved from the small, rural Rutherford County where the church is headquartered. The nine-year gap between mistrial and retrial was shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, the failed bid to remove the original prosecutor, deaths or retirements of lawyers on both sides, and the handover to a new prosecutor in a new jurisdiction. Both the new prosecutor and Covington’s lawyer did not respond to messages seeking details about the trial.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Covington remains a leader of Word of Faith Fellowship, but the pending charges and the 2017 prosecution have hung over her for nearly a decade without resolution. The church she helps lead has contracted sharply, from about 700 North Carolina members a decade ago to an estimated 300 to 400, according to a former leader’s sworn statement. If convicted at the retrial she faces prison time on the kidnapping and assault counts; if the jury again cannot agree, the case could end without any verdict, as it has so far.

Sources

• *NY Post (AP), “Assault and kidnapping retrial for Word of Faith religious group leader set in North Carolina”, 28 September 2026 — source
• *Associated Press via WUNC, “Man who says religious group beat him wants prosecutor removed after long wait for retrial”, 9 December 2025 — source
• *@nypost on X, “Assault and kidnapping retrial for Word of Faith religious group leader set in North Carolina”, 28 September 2026 — source