Attorneys for the three men charged with a brutal kidnapping at the Mount of Olives Ministry church in south city say the case against their clients is a circumstance of mistaken identity and a “rush to judgment” by the police.
Grace Kipendo, Pasi Heri and Mmunga Fungamali were charged with felony kidnapping and assault two weekends ago after police were led to the church in the Patch neighborhood by a woman “crying out to passersby who were not members of the church,” one of whom called police.
The victim told police she was tied up, beaten, given only water and forced to use a bucket as a makeshift toilet. She allegedly escaped from the room where she was being held in the early hours of Saturday, February 24.
City officials subsequently condemned the church. At a hearing last week, Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Faerber described cult-like conditions, saying that when police went into the church they found a “white room” populated by women referred to as “good angels” who wore white veils. “Officers tried to lift their veils to check on their well-being and the women started screaming,” Farber said.
Defense attorney Chris Combs strongly disagrees with those allegations, saying that the stuff about “good angels” and “bad angels” is a red herring.
Combs said in court that Mount of Olives is a Christian church comprised mostly of African immigrants and services are conducted Swahili. “Calling them a cult is racist,” Combs told St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Heather Hayes. “I have no problem saying that.”
COURTESY SLMPD
From left, Grace Kipendo, Pasi Heri and Mmunga Fungamali all face charges related to the kidnapping of a unnamed female.
Combs was arguing on behalf of his client, Kipendo, saying that he should be allowed to remain out of jail as the case continues working its way through the system.
Hayes ultimately disagreed, denying Kipendo bond. At their hearings, Heri and Fungamali were denied bond as well.
Both Combs and attorney Sue McGraugh, who represents Heri, said that the victim in the case had some sort of mental health breakdown on the night in question. Combs said she was then escorted to the room where prosecutors would later allege she was held against her will — but it was a room she’d already been living in.
According to Combs, the woman had been living in the church since last year and the room she was allegedly held captive in was the very room she was squatting in.
Combs was able to view a snippet of body cam footage prior to the hearing and told the RFT he saw bags of trash from floor to ceiling. He said that three to five other people lived in the church at the time of the incident and that one of those people assaulted the victim, not the three men who were arrested.
Combs told the RFT that he has spoken to many people who say they know who attacked the woman, but Combs says these witnesses haven’t been contacted by police.
The police “rushed to judgment due to cultural differences,” Combs said. There were approximately 40 people at the church participating in a religious ceremony when police showed up and the victim identified Kipendo, Heri and Fungamali based on their clothes.
However, the prosecutor at Kipendo’s hearing said that police body cam footage taken at the scene showed members of the church engaging in “classic examples of [witness] intimidation.”
At Fungamali’s hearing, prosecutor Shaniecea Dunham said that church members went to great lengths to contact the victim at a hospital even though she was in protective custody. One church member even claimed to be in the CIA.
McGraugh noted in court that there is “quite a lot of sensationalism around these charges,” but she pointed out that the charges themselves are class D and E felonies, the two lowest categories of felony.
Prior to Fungamali’s hearing in front of Judge Catherine Anne Dierker, his attorney Justin Summary flipped through his client’s passport, trying to figure out if he’d even been in the country when the alleged kidnapping occurred.
Summary concluded that Fungamali had been in the U.S. for less than a day when the incident at the church occurred. He questioned why someone who just got off a plane from Canada would immediately be party to a kidnapping.
The victim’s mother was in court supporting the three accused men, as was Arlie Singleton, a pastor who sold the church to Mount of Olives. Neither spoke at the bond hearings, but afterwards, Singleton said that the city has mistaken “culture” for a “cult,” and it seems to him could be open to a lawsuit for shutting the church down.
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