FORT MILL, S.C. — A Fort Mill church is being sued over allegations its leadership ignored years of sexual abuse by a youth leader who was also a Cornelius police officer.
Attorneys representing three of the victims claimed that MorningStar Fellowship Church ignored the actions of Erickson Lee. Earlier this month, Lee pleaded guilty to committing child sex crimes while serving as a youth leader at the church.
"This is about accountability and responsibility," attorney Randall Hood said at a news conference on Monday. "When you provide an environment for young children to participate in church activities, you don't just get to put them in a room with people that you don't know anything about. You've got to protect them."
Lee was a Cornelius police officer before he was arrested in May 2023. He resigned hours before surrendering to York County deputies.
Warrants allege that Erickson encouraged minors to get drunk at his home in Fort Mill while he was a volunteer with the church. He also reportedly played pornographic videos for the victims. The church addressed Lee's arrest at the time, saying he hadn't been involved with MorningStar ministries for several months.
He was sentenced to nine years in South Carolina prison after pleading guilty to all charges. According to the Rock Hill Herald, Lee was originally expected to receive an eight-year sentence, but failed to appear in court on time and was given an additional year behind bars. According to the Herald, Erickson entered an Alford plea, which means he accepts the sentence and admits that testimony or evidence tends to prove a crime was committed but does not admit to the acts he's accused of. An Alford plea is still recorded as a guilty plea under South Carolina law.
The lawsuit claims the ministry knew about Lee’s misconduct did nothing to stop it and failed to report previous reports of sexual assaults to the police.
“Monsters exist,” said Hood. “Churches have to create policies and procedures to protect children they need to monitor and supervise people who are over children.”
Rick Joyner, the founder of MorningStar Ministries, named in the lawsuit, addressed the lawsuit on Sept. 1. In a video posted on his official YouTube page, Joyner denied any knowledge of Lee's misconduct.
"I believe it was one of the most atrocious, terrible things that we've ever had happen," Joyner said. "But the accusations in the lawsuit were wildly untrue. I mean, way out-of-the-box untrue, but one of our volunteers used their position, and they were not an employee of the ministry, but used their relationship and some stuff happened with these young men that is just awful. We need to face it and deal with it."
Joyner said the church won't view the case from a liability standpoint. Instead, he vowed to do whatever it takes to keep members of the congregation safe and prevent any further abuse.
"The main thing we're doing is we don't want this to happen to anyone ever again," Joyner explained. "That's our perspective, we want the truth. We're looking at this from, 'We need the truth.' We're not going to, if we go to court, we're not going to be against these victims, we're not going to be on one side and them, we're on the same side, we want the truth."
The ministry sent WCNC Charlotte a statement saying "MorningStar Fellowship Church remains saddened, shocked, and appalled by the mistreatment of four young men by a former volunteer in the Youth Special Forces Program, Mr. Erickson Lee, who was also a police officer with the Cornelius, NC, Police Department. The ministry’s first concern is and always will be the young men and their families, and we will continue to do all in our power to ensure the safety of all our youth and congregants."
MorningStar said it conducted three separate background checks of Lee and there were no issues. "We believed his status as a police officer meant that he would be a protector of these young men rather than one who would impose illegal acts upon them. As we have often asked ourselves in the aftermath If we can’t trust a police officer as a youth worker, who can we trust?"
It adds Officer Lee was immediately relieved from duties as a volunteer when the ministry first got reports that he provided the young men with alcohol. "At that time, we were unaware of any sexual misconduct by Officer Lee. Several weeks later, as soon as allegations surfaced of sexual misconduct perpetrated by Officer Lee, we notified law enforcement immediately. To be clear, any notion that MorningStar knew about or “covered up” any misconduct by Officer Lee or any sexual criminal conduct by anyone associated with the ministry is false. Our best information is that none of the incidents occurred on church property."