Former Cowboy Church Pastor Claims Innocence

By Jonathan Stinson
Sand Mountain Reporter
October 3, 2012

http://www.sandmountainreporter.com/news/local/article_eb345f40-0da4-11e2-9aa1-001a4bcf887a.html

In June, Mark Allen Green, former pastor of the Cowboy Church in Marshall County, said he turned himself over to authorities in Ellis County, Texas, after he was charged with the sexual abuse of a minor.

Green went on to say he spent 90 days in jail and, since then, a grand jury in Ellis County decided not to indict him on the charges after the child who made the accusations recanted her story.

A clerk in the Ellis County District Attorney's office confirmed that the grand jury did not indict Green.

He is also facing the same charges in Navarro County, but Green said he expected those to be dropped as well, since they were based on the same investigation, and involved the same person, in Ellis County.

Green became the pastor of the Cowboy Church in Marshall County three weeks prior to the charges being filed in Ellis County. He said that during his time as pastor of the church here, he was honest about his past, which included some jail time and about the allegations levied against him.

During Green's first sermon to the church, he told them about his past.

"That very Sunday I was honest with the entire congregation, because my past works as my ministry today, as my testimony," he said. "I went to prison for the hot checks. I did write several of them. It was a little over 15 years since I wrote my last hot check, but since then, once I got out of prison, I have turned my life around and being in the ministry and ministering to the youth and things like that.

"Right after church, the pastor search committee met with me, and they offered me the job."

Green said all of the church leaders knew about his past and looked into it.

"There has been some discrepancies on whether or not they did a background check on me, and yes they did to verify everything I said," he said.

According to Jim Forbes, an elder at the church, Green did disclose some things about his past during that sermon, but "failed to tell everything."

Green said when the church learned of the claims in Texas, the church supported him then as well.

"We were in Alabama for three weeks or so when I found out I was being investigated with the sexual assault of a child. This little girl's parents were close friends at the time, and they actually came with us to Alabama on vacation.

"What it kind of all boiled down to is when I left Alabama I left a remodeling job undone for this little girl's parents. I did not finish a laminate floor. I told them I would come back, fly back, but the church wanted me there in such a hurry I didn't have a lot of time to finish that job."

Green said the girl's father had sent him threatening text messages telling him not to underestimate him and that he had no idea what he was capable of.

"It was two days after those text messages that I got a call that I was being investigated.

"I went straight to my elders and told them what was going on," he said. "They did not want me to tell the church what was going on, because we all kind of felt that it would just kind of go away. We felt that it was so petty that what these parents were doing to me that I would be investigated and they would see that it was not true.

"But, that didn't happen. I got a call from the investigators in Ellis County. They asked me if I would turn myself in. I said I would. They gave me a week, and then I went and turned myself in to the investigators in Ellis County.

"The Sunday before I left, I had a church meeting and told the entire church what was going on and then after that meeting, the entire church stood with me on the pulpit and told me that they were going to back me. So, I had the backing of the entire congregation."

Forbes disputed that Green had the "full support" of the "entire congregation," but did say there were some who supported Green.

Shortly after his arrest, Green was fired from his position as pastor of the church, and he said he is seeking a wrongful termination claim against those who fired him, because they failed to follow the church's bylaws that require a pastor be voted out by the congregation.

Forbes also disputed Green's claim that the church failed to follow the bylaws.

"There is a clause in the bylaws that says when you have a complete breakdown of the church, the elders assume control for the church and that's the basis that we did that," Forbes said.

Forbes went on to say that Green was not terminated for the situation in Texas.

"I want to make it clear that his situation in Texas had absolutely nothing to do with his termination.

"He has not been found guilty of any of that. So, that's not why he was terminated at all, but I'm not at liberty to say. It's defendable, but this isn't the format to do that," Forbes said.

Green is currently in Texas awaiting a hearing in Navarro County on the same charges.

Contact: jstinson@sandmountainreporter.com