A San Jose church has expanded its lawsuit challenging fines imposed by Santa Clara County for violating COVID-19 restrictions to include James Williams, the counsel for Santa Clara County.
Williams was added to the lawsuit filed by Calvary Chapel San Jose and its Pastor Mike McClure for allegedly sending threatening letters to the church’s lender causing the bank to send a notice of default to the church for non-compliance with governmental regulations.
The county has fined the church more than $2.8 million for violating COVID-19 restrictions on indoor gatherings and face-covering mandates well after California eased its shelter-in-place order at the onset of the pandemic. The restrictions have been lifted but Santa Clara County continues to seek payment of the fine. The church is suing to avoid payment and seeking punitive damages for being unfairly targeted.
The County Counsel’s Office had no comment on the expanded complaint. According to Mariah Gondeiro, an attorney for the plaintiffs, the case is in the discovery phase as both sides seek information to bolster their case.
“What’s going to help us is finding in discovery that they lacked justification for their treatment of churches, especially this church,” said Mariah Gondeiro of Advocates for Faith & Freedom. “So far they haven’t been able to prove one case of COVID-19 that has been traced to this church. Yet, they want to collect $2.8 million in fines from this church.”
The expanded complaint alleges Williams sent letters to Calvary’s lender to put pressure on Pastor McClure and the church to drop their lawsuit, pay the fines and comply with COVID-19 orders. In addition, the lawsuit alleges Williams’ actions violate the First Amendment.
Williams’ letters caused the bank to fear the government was in the process of putting a lien on the church property. The bank, which wasn’t aware the church was contesting the fines and the case was ongoing, issued a notice of default and forced the church to make accelerated payments causing immense financial hardship. It took months for the bank to clarify what was going on and withdraw its notice of default, according to Gondeiro..
“The fact (Williams) did that is just an abuse of power,” Gondeiro said. “It’s so egregious for a government official to do that. We were challenging everything in court. The way they tried to circumvent the process and put pressure on the bank was extremely inappropriate.”