A former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor has pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal investigators who were looking into allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct within the Southern Baptist Convention , according to court documents and Matthew Queen’s attorney.
Queen, a former interim provost at the south Fort Worth theological school, entered a guilty plea Wednesday, Oct. 16. He had pleaded not guilty in May after being indicted on the charge of obstructing justice by falsifying records.
Queen’s attorney, Sam Schmidt, said federal prosecutors allowed Queen to plead guilty to making false statements as part of a plea deal, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV reported. In turn, the government agreed to dismiss the obstruction of justice component of the charge.
“Dr. Queen believes that all allegations of sexual abuse and sexual harassment should be investigated, should be handled properly,” Schmidt told WFAA. “The mistake that he made and the crimes he acknowledged in June of 2023 was not for the purpose of preventing an investigation into any act of sexual abuse.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI began investigating allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct related to the Southern Baptist Convention and its affiliates in 2022. In October of that year, a grand jury subpoenaed all documents in Southwestern Baptist’s possession related to sexual abuse allegations against anyone employed by or associated with the Fort Worth seminary.
In November 2022, a Southwestern Baptist employee, later identified as Terri Stovall, received a report alleging that a student committed sexual assault. Stovall, who is the dean of women at the seminary, immediately notified campus police, but no further action was taken by the institution at the time, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release. The assault wasn’t reported to prosecutors.
Stovall created a document in January 2023 describing the sexual assault allegation and the failure of the seminary to address it, according to Queen’s indictment, but a member of the seminary’s executive staff told her to make the document “go away.” Queen was present at that meeting, but told the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office that he didn’t hear the executive staff member ordering Stovall to destroy the document.
Days after his interview with authorities, Queen falsely told another employee that he had just found a notebook in his office containing notes from the meeting with Stovall and the executive staff member. The notes, which Queen claimed to have written on Jan. 26, 2023, when the meeting occurred, state that the executive staff member instructed Stovall to redirect the submission of the document to another department at Southwestern Baptist, the indictment alleges.
The falsified notes were provided to the grand jury subpoena. In June 2023, Queen admitted under oath that he had actually heard the executive staff member tell Stovall to destroy the document.
The staff of Southwestern Baptist said in a statement Wednesday that they are praying for Queen and his family and are committed to protecting all of their members from sexual abuse and harassment.
“From the beginning, Southwestern Seminary has fully cooperated with the Department of Justice in its investigation of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention,” the statement reads. “We remain resolute in our commitment to continue to do so.”
Stovall, who remains employed at the seminary, said in a separate statement that she’s grateful Queen is being held accountable for his actions.
“My hope is that the full truth and extent of his actions — and the actions of others who are no longer employed at Southwestern — will one day come to light,” Stovall said in her statement. “Their egregious behavior has caused deep harm to me and others within our Southwestern community, and has brought significant cost to the institution, while harming their own Gospel witness.”
Queen is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 26, according to WFAA. He faces zero to six months in prison as part of the plea deal. He could have received a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if the case had gone to trial and he’d been convicted on the original charge.
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