Joyce Meyer Ministries Dropped from Coleman Wrongful Death Suit

St. Louis Globe-Democrat-- A ruling on a motion in Monroe County Circuit Court on Tuesday to drop Joyce Meyer Ministries Inc. from a wrongful death suit was a “tactical retreat,” according to an attorney for the family of murder victim Sheri Coleman.

It doesn't mean Coleman’s family will not pursue a civil action against Joyce Meyer Ministries Inc. or Ronald Coleman.

“We are not dropping Joyce Meyer Ministries, we are not dropping Ronald Coleman,” said Jack Carey, a Belleville attorney representing the family. “We can file against either or both between now and May 2011”

Carey had filed a civil suit last year against Christopher Coleman, 32, accused of the first degree murder of his wife, Sheri, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9. The three were found strangled at their home on May 5 last year at their home in Columbia, Ill.

Joyce Meyer’s ministry, where Christopher Coleman worked as a security guard, was named a respondent-in-discovery. Ronald Coleman, also named as a respondent-in-discovery, is Christopher Coleman’s father.

Carey had six months to seek depositions to convert the ministry and Ronald Coleman as defendants

But Monroe County Judge Dennis Doyle ruled earlier this month that the six-month window had elapsed for the family’s attorneys to take depositions from Meyer or employees of her ministry. A hearing was set in Monroe County Circuit court to name the ministries and Ronald Coleman as defendants.

Then more legal maneuvering ensued. Last week, Carey filed a motion to drop Meyer from the suit. That motion was approved Tuesday.

Carey said without the depositions, attorneys weren’t sure they had enough evidence to proceed with the action. They wanted to be cautious, he said. “It’s a tactical retreat,” Carey said outside the court room.

“This is just something we were not comfortable with going forward on Friday,” Carey said. “It was better to withdraw the respondent-in-discovery and determine in the next few months how we want to proceed against the ministry and Ronald Coleman, or both.”

The six-month deadline was missed for reasons that the judge didn’t find acceptable, he said.

Scheduling problems with Enrico Mirabelli, another attorney representing the family from Cook County, Ill, and with obtaining information with the ministries delayed the process, he said. Another complicating factor involved Carey’s open heart surgery in October.

Some evidence was obtained and Carey said they tried to have the period extended to obtain depositions, he said. The court said, however, that time had run out. “The judge said six months, six months,” Carey said.

Carey said the family’s civil case could be stronger with the completion of Christopher Coleman’s criminal trial. More evidence will become available, he said. “My brief exposure to that evidence that there is plenty there to support a civil case,” Carey said.

Joyce Meyer Ministries is significant because of evidence involving testimony from employees, computer records, cell phone use and other information, he said. Carey distributed interrogatories on Tuesday that he suggests the ministry provided marital counseling to Christopher and Sheri Coleman.

Carey acknowledged that monetary damages in the case would come from Joyce Meyers Ministries. In Illinois, specific amounts can’t be sought in wrongful death suits. A “judicial amount” in access of $75,000 is sought.

Any damages if the case is successful may not come from Christopher Coleman. His house is in foreclosure and his pension has been frozen by court order. “It may give the family at least some emotional satisfaction,” Carey said.