Subj: Heights Presbyterian Church Questions  Date: 12/7/2003 2:59:27 AM Central America Standard Tim From: To: John WorldPeace CC:

I have been reading your website after learning of you through the news (your unsuccessful race for mayor). 

> My entry in the mayor's race was to call attention to WorldPeace, to make people think about WorldPeace.  Truth is that I would never do well as the head of any bureaucracy political or otherwise.

 What caught my attention was the controversy surrounding the Heights Presbyterian Church.  I have never been to that particular church and I do not think that I know any of the members your listed.  My interest was due in large part with the controversy about Gene Robinson (the "gay" clergy of another church).  I too, believe that some churches have abandoned God and Jesus for humanitarian purposes.

In following your considerable effort to expose the alleged corruption, I have noted some questions that I have about your evidence.

It appears that this controversy deals in a large part with the Independence Heights, Inc. and that you do not agree with the way it was set up. 

> It is a simple matter really.  The Book of Order is the rule book for the operation of the Presbyterian Church USA.  There is a procedure for proceeding with a project like the Independence Heights.  It was not followed by the minister.  In fact less than a handful of members of the church knew about the project until ten months after the initial paperwork was signed.  When there is that much secrecy, you can bet there is corruption involved.

> By the way, Delgatto, the minister, is leaving on February 14, 2003, and one of the main corruptors and trouble makers at the church, Patty Ellis, left about a month ago.

 Please correct me if I am mistaken about anything.  Some of the points maybe seem insignificant, but as a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) (National Association of Fraud Examiners out of Austin, TX) since 1993, I know that it is the seemingly insignificant items that make or break a case.

If I may submit the following (I realize you are busy and appreciate the efforts that responding may take):

1.  On your website (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm) you state that, "In the law, there can be no contract until there is consideration (money paid)."

However, I find that under Texas Contract law that, "Promises to exchange money, goods, or services are forms of consideration. All parties in an agreement must give consideration in order to create a contract, but courts typically do not make a determination about the adequacy of the consideration unless there is evidence of some type of wrongdoing by the party benefiting most from the contract." (http://www.weblocator.com/attorney/tx/law/b02.html)

>  I agree.  But I do not think it is relevant here.  No consideration of any kind was given by the church until after the Presbytery's Administrative Commission took over in February 2003.  There is a question about what exactly the Diane Springer money was.  The intent was to obligate the church but I am not sure that money did obligate the church.  It obligated Diane Springer and the conspirators but not the church in my opinion.

If I understand the author of this site (and other sources) correctly, the mere promises to exchange money, goods or services are a form of consideration and that the actual exchange of money is not required.  For example, if I hired you to cut the grass in my yard and provided you with a promissory note, and you agreed, would there be a binding contract even if the promissory note were worthless?

>  I agree. But again not relevant to this fact pattern.

2. In evaluating the evidence that you have presented, I must evaluate you.  I will not get into the disbarment issues, as I am not an attorney and do not feel qualified to judge you or the Bar Association.

> The disbarment is extremely complex because I did things to make sure that I could challenge the grievance process and potentially shut it down.  I would say that is what has shocked the Supreme Court; the fact that I was laying the predicates and preserving error for almost three years.  I was playing chess when the State Bar was playing checkers.  They seriously underestimated me and what I was doing.  Truth is that they still don't really get it and neither does the presiding judge in the case.

However, I am also a veteran who is proud of my service and am displeased whenever anyone claims to be a veteran and is not or whenever a veteran "overstates" their service.

On your website (www.johnworldpeace.com) you posted information about your military service and that of your father and sons.  You should be very proud of your father and your sons' service to this country.  You should also be proud of your service to this country.

However, your statement, "When America called during the Vietnam Era, I reported for duty.  By the grace of God, after a year of training as an infantry sergeant for Vietnam, I was sent to the Southern European Task Force (SETAF) inVicenza, Italy." bothers me for some reason.  I was also received my draft notice (June 5, 1972).  This was also during the Vietnam Era.  After basic training and advance training as a 13E (Artillery Fire Direction Control) I "re-enlisted" for four years to guarantee assignment to the 101st Airborne (which fortunately (even though I wanted to go to Vietnam) was recalled from Vietnam and returned to Fort Campbell, KY).

What bothers me about your statement is that "after a year of training as an infantry sergeant…" did I miss out of something?  I received high marks on my evaluations, I was the second in my class during AIT, and the officers all appeared to like me.  But I did not make sergeant (E-5) until almost two years later.  And I never received "a year of training" as a sergeant.  Did you enter the service as an E-5 sergeant?  Did you REALLY receive specialized training for one year?  I know a little bit about the infantry as I provided the artillery support for different infantry units at Fort Campbell and in Germany (3rd Infantry Division).  I even provided the artillery testing for the Infantry Badge during 1976-77 in Germany.

None of my friends who were in the infantry and who did make sergeant received a year's training to be a sergeant.  Nor did they know of anyone who did.  I do not doubt you, I just do not understand.  May I ask where you took this "year of training as an infantry sergeant?"

> I was trained in the infantry from October 1970 to September 1971.  In June 1971, I was officially promoted to sergeant.  So I was not in a sergeant school for a year but was trained in the infantry for a year with the end result of becoming a sergeant.

>  Here it is.  I was drafted in October 1970, and sent to Ft. Polk Louisiana for basic training.  About half my company was college graduates who had finally lost their deferments.  I graduated from the University of Houston in August 1970.  I had signed up for Marine Corp OCS in the summer of 1970 but was rejected because they were only taking engineers and I was a political science major.  Two weeks after I was drafted, the Marines called and said they had a place for me in March 1971.  I refused to discharge from the Army and sit at home for another five months.

After basic training (8 weeks) I was sent to infantry training at North Fort Polk (Tigerland at that time).  2000 guys a week were graduated and sent to Vietnam after three weeks leave.  Right after Christmas 1970 they asked for volunteers to go to NCO school at Fort Benning Georgia.  It was a school set up in 1967 to graduate about 165 infantry sergeants to go to Vietnam every two weeks.  My wife was pregnant so I volunteered in order to stay stateside until September instead of shipping out at the end of March for Vietnam.  NCO school meant Vietnam period.

I was accepted.  I arrived at Ft. Benning in March or April 1971 and immediately was advanced to sergeant's pay.  I went from E-3 to E-5 if I remember correctly.  I did not get the actual increase in rank until I graduated from NCO School in June 1971. I trained at Ft. Benning for 12 weeks and then had a choice to volunteer for airborne and or special forces.  If I went airborne, I would be shipped to Ft. Brag afterwards and the same thing if I went to special forces.  As it turned out all my NCO buddies that went airborne Ranger came back to Ft Hood, Texas and never left the states.

After NCO school, I was sent back to Ft Polk to act as an assistant drill sergeant for a 12 week cycle of Advanced Infantry Training.  This was part of the 24 week NCO program.

In September 1971, I reported to Ft. Dix, New Jersey and was told that I was not going to Vietnam but was going to Europe.  they sent me to Vicenza, Italy.  

In early, 1972, Nixon began winding down the Vietnam war and I got a five month early out.  I was discharged in May 1972.  So I was drafted, made sergeant in six months, went to Italy where my wife and I lived on the economy and I got out five months early thanks to tricky Dick Nixon.  My DD214 verifies all of this. I guess that I could put that on the internet.  If you have questions, I am sure others do as well.

3. I am sorry this is out of order.  You state, "1) On May 25, 2001, Charlie Windham, signed a HUD commitment to the Independence Heights Project, as trustee for Heights Presbyterian Church. (Ex "A")" (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm), but I can not find that exhibit attached to that electronic document.  Could you provide it please?

> I will try to post it shortly.

4. You also state, "The Project had not been approved by Presbytery, nor the session nor the congregation." And "2) In February 2002, this project came to the attention of the session for the first time."  But do not cite any evidence.  Where can I find this evidence?

> There was a session meeting and the minutes of that meeting talk about the project. The minutes do not say it was the first time it came up.  But it was.

5. "On Monday, April 15, 2002, an employee of HUD came to the church and discussed the project but refused to elaborate on the financial obligations that the church would incur."  Who was this HUD employee? 

> I do not know, but could find out with some research.  You see the judge stopped the case before I could get this in discovery.  Next week I will be taking the judge up on appeal if she refuses to restart the lawsuit.  I would have done this before now but I have been too busy working to shut down the State Bar grievance process.

 I believe April 15, 2002, was a Monday.  Was this at night or during the day?  Was this HUD person there on "Official Business?"  Did you personally attend or is this hearsay?

> Night.  I was not there.  Again it was in the minutes of the session meeting.  And others told me about it. It is not disputed.

6. "On April 19, 2002, WorldPeace had a meeting with Joe Delgatto, Charlie Windham, Tom Lord, Linda Holder, Lord's employee, and Bob Casey, Jr., Lord's attorney who works at Bracewell Patterson. The meeting was held at the church.

At that meeting, it was admitted that contrary to what Delgatto and Windham had been telling the      congregation, there were not four sponsors of the project but only Heights Presbyterian Church." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm).  As a CFE the posting of times are important.  Also you did not state who "admitted" that there was only one sponsor of the project.

> No one admitted it.  The subsequent paperwork in the project showed that two of the original four churches who were involved in two other similiar projects in the area dropped out.  So in the end there was only one church until the Administrative Commission finalized Heights Presbyterian Church involvement in March 2003, and then there was two.

  Do you recall who it was?   As an attorney, I would hope that you would understand the value of know who did what and when.  

> Again the documents show that all four churches signed off on the initial paperwork in May 2001.  A few months later, All Saints Catholic Church dropped out and six months later St Andrews Episcopal dropped out.  But Delgatto told everyone that all four were in the project and the project was a done deal.  He announced this from the pulpit several times and in several session meetings.  It was a lie.  I have recordings if I am not mistaken of some of his pulpit admissions.  I began taping each Sunday service with audio and video because of all the lies that were being told.

7. "On April 21, 2002, after worship service, there was an illegal special executive session meeting (because the reason for the session meeting had not been stated the prior Sunday and because the meeting was not a single purpose meeting). At this meeting there was a vote to continue sponsorship of the Independence Heights Project." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm).  Not being a Presbyterian, could you cite the actual law or rule that such a "special executive session meeting" violated?

> I will find it.  But the Presbyterian Book of Order incorporates Robert's Rules of Order and Robert's Rules of Order states that special session meetings must be called on particular issues only.  In other words, when you call a special session meeting you have to state what it is for.  This was not done.  It was just said that a special session meeting would be held.  Some of the session members were not even informed of the meeting until the day of the meeting.

8. "On April 24, 2002, Delgatto wrote a letter to the congregation stating that: "The scriptures tell us that Satan is the 'father of lies and the author of deception.' This lawsuit, therefore, comes from the mouth of Hell itself." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  Could you attach this letter? 

> I will find it and post it.

 Also could you explain the relevance of Delgatto's opinion of the lawsuit to the accusations?  He, like you, is entitled to his opinions.  Do Presbyterians believe in Satan and Hell?  I know some churches soft pedal those (real in my opinion) concepts.

> Delgatto was trying to use his position as a church bureaucrat to shut me up and discredit me.  He tried to get the congregation behind him based on his position in the church.  That was his goal. It did not work because everyone knew him to be a notorious liar.

> Presbyterians are not fundamentalist Christians but they do believe in Heaven and Hell.


9. "The problem here is that Joe and the rest of the conspirators in this matter continue to say that Heights Presbyterian Church has not paid any money toward the project." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  Where and how many times have they allegedly said this? 

> Almost every week and several times a week. The conspirators were on a campaign to deny the truth of what they had done and by their numbers make people believe I was lying.  But I wasn't..

 And is there evidence to the contrary?

> What they did was in October 2002, they apparently gave one of the conspirators $5,000 to donate directly to the Independence Heights, Inc.  This stopped the session from having to vote on paying the money to the project.  There is a letter from the President of IH, Inc. about this contribution.  The minister of Heights Christian Church was the President.  Things got too hot for her in January 2003, and she would not sign off on the final papers and retired from the ministry.

10. "This is a lie in the sense that they got Diane Springer to pay the money directly to the project on behalf of the church so they would not have to deal with the money coming into the church and then getting approval of the session to pay the money into the project." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  But apparently "Diane Springer, wrote a personal check to the Independence Heights, Inc." and not to the Presbyterian Church.  Forgive my confusion, but isn't the Independence Heights, Inc. a legal separate entity from the Heights Presbyterian Church?

> It was set up secretly by the conspirators in March 2002 without the knowledge of the session or the congregation. Four of the conspirators were on the incorporation papers.

11. "Big mistake, Diane is going to be added to the lawsuit because whatever monies that Heights Presbyterian Church has to pay to get out of this project will be due because of the money that Diane paid into the project for the benefit of Heights Church." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  Please clarify how a member of a church obligates the church to something by merely writing a "personal check" to another organization (that maybe connected to the church)? 

> Originally the four churches were to contribute $2,500 each.  When two dropped out it required each remaining church, Heights Presbyterian and Heights Christian to pay $5,000 each.  The congregation of Heights Presbyterian was against the project. So the conspirators had Diane Springer write a personal check directly to the IH, Inc. to attempt to further obligate Heights Presbyterian church without having to inform the congregation that the church was being obligated to the project.

 I am sorry that I do not follow your line of reasoning here.  And this appears to be a significant aspect of your allegations.

> I hope I have made this clear.  You see they now say the church was never out any money.  But that is not true because the church is obligated for the monthly operating deficit on the project for the next forty years.

12. "And further, the fact that Diane paid these monies was not known until Ms. Feiler, the newly hired attorney for the church, filed some pleadings on December 2, 2002, in the lawsuit to stop WorldPeace from attending the congregational meeting on December 8, 2002." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  If it were her personal funds, why should she have to make it known? 

> It would be like your neighbor paying $5,000 to a fraudulently deal in your name.  He paid the money but you were obligated.  See?  This is what Diane Springer did.  She paid the money to obligate the congregation without the congregation knowing what was going on.

 You seem to imply that this proves a point.  I fail to follow your reasoning.

> Do you see now?  

13. "…Rev. Belinda Windam (no kin to Charlie Windham I am told)…" (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm) Was there a "typo" here or is one name "Windam" and the other name "Windham?" 

> Both are named Windham but not related to each other.

 I must confess, this type of comment (which you liberally pepper your evidence) distracts from your allegations and tends to lessens your creditability to the average reader.  I know my request for just the facts may remove some of the "fun" of this investigation, but any good lawyer (of which I am sure you are) knows this is not appropriate behavior in the presentation of the evidence.  If some had done the same to you (i.e. John WorldPeace - no kin to "Whirled Peas" I am told) I am confident that you would not feel that it was appropriate.  Please stick to the facts and leave out the unneeded remarks.

> It was a typo.  period.  I did not catch it.  

14. "(and who had been asked to leave the ministry of St. Giles Presbyterian Church)" (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  Evidence or heresy?

> Fact.  But she was allowed to leave.   Just like Delgatto.  The Presbytery covered his bad acts in exchange for him resigning on his own initiative effective this coming February.  Belinda was sent packing.  St Giles is a liberal church and Belinda Windham is a fascist.  Ergo, bye bye.

15. "It has been said that Dr. Feiler had a relationship with one of the members of the congregation but I have not verified this yet. Dr. Feiler from what I can tell is no longer a Presbyterian minister." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  John, please refrain from "school yard gossip" it seriously distracts from your issues and discredits you.  If you have evidence of any material FACTS, please post them.

> This is true.  I believe I have Fieler's divorce papers and if I remember correctly they mention the husband's adultery.  He cannot be found on the list of Presbyterian Ministers on the internet.

16. "The important thing to know here is that before coming to Heights Presbyterian Church, Patty Ellis was a member of St Phillip Presbyterian Church. So Delgatto presented Diane Feiler to the session because Patty told him to." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  I am sorry if I am "short" with you, but to put in heresy like this is unbecoming of a professional.  Do you have ANY evidence that "Patty told him to?"

> I do not have a tape recording of the conversation.  Patty Ellis came from St. Phillip, Fieler came from St. Phillip, Jeanie Flowers who is on the Adminsitrative Commission is a member of St Phillip, and of the four or five other committees appointed by Presbytery, all but one have a member from St. Phillip on them.  Someone was calling the shots and packing these St. Phillip people into the committees.  None of them were around until Patty came to the church.  There are 106 chuches in the Presbytery of New Covenant.  So why were so many people pulled from St. Phillip?

17. "In addition, Ms. Feiler has filed suit on behalf of Patty Ellis against WorldPeace and Joyce Wolter for defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress." (http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  After reading your presentations with unsubstantiated hearsay, I can understand why someone would sue you.

> In Texas, nothing written in a lawsuit or in regards to a lawsuit can be used to support a cause of action for slander.  So the point is that she had no cause of action, and as an attorney knew it.

> Further, you have to understand that I do have the evidence but I am not presently my case to a judge but to the rank and file Presbyterians in the United States most of whom would not understand the hearsay argument.

18.  "So what should have happened before Windham obligated the church to the Independence Heights project was that the session should have requested the Presbytery to approve the project, the Presbytery should have approved the project and informed the session, and the session should have called a congregational meeting, the congregation should have approved the project and then the trustee should have signed the documents committing the church to the project. Of course none of this happened." http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com/h021208a.htm)  What are the penalties, if any for an unapproved obligation? 

> That is the problem.  There are no penalties in the church for violating the Book of Order.  That is why it is a joke.  The problem is that the Presbytery cites it when it is to their benefit and ignores it when it is not.

 Could you cite it for me?

> The penalty comes in the civil lawsuit only.

I think 18 questions are enough for now.  You may post this on your website, if you do not alter the points.

I am J. Stephen Coffman.  

Thank you for your consideration and please take these suggestions in the vein that they have been presented.  Maybe I am too "picky" as to details and the separation of facts from hearsay, but that is due to my training and experience.

> I welcome you thoughts.  Ask away.

WorldPeace

Second email

http://www.presbyterians-r-us.com

How can we manifest peace on earth if we do not include everyone (all races, all nations, all religions, both sexes) in our vision of Peace?

The WorldPeace Banner

The WorldPeace Insignia : Explanation 

To order a WorldPeace Insignia lapel pin, go to: Order  

To the John WorldPeace Galleries Page

To the WorldPeace Peace Page