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Alleged Cult that Bought Nelly’s House Eyes 284-Acre Boeing Campus | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

February 27, 2023

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click to enlarge Advertising brochure Photo from brochure advertising property at 16805 New Halls Ferry Road for sale.

The alleged cult that in 2021 bought a Wildwood mansion from Nelly is now trying to buy a 284-acre property in Florissant where Boeing used to operate its Leadership Center.

According to an individual familiar with the Kingdom of God Global Church’s business dealings, the organization is attempting to take out a $25 million loan in order to purchase the sprawling property, which until the fall of 2020 was used by Boeing for corporate retreats and training.

According to a brochure for the property on New Halls Ferry Road, the site contains dining and educational facilities, as well as conference rooms, classrooms and residential lodges.

Reached for comment, Joseph Busch, a preacher with the church whose name is on a loan application obtained by the RFT, said he would have to run the query by the church’s executive team. We never heard back.

The Kingdom of God Global Church currently owns nine properties in west St. Louis County, including the Wildwood mansion and a five-bed, nine-bath mansion in Chesterfield valued at $2 million.

Past local properties owned by the church have drawn scrutiny from neighbors, who have complained of large numbers of people living on site. At one property in Chesterfield, which the church has since sold, neighbors said that dozens of people were living in the home and working on site in what appeared to be a call center operation.

The church is led by 50-year-old David E. Taylor, who has boasted of raising people from the dead.

While the church owns millions of dollars worth of property in the St. Louis area, the Boeing property would be on another level entirely. A brochure advertises buildings totaling 300,000 square feet, including 204 private rooms as well as a cafeteria and dining facilities similar to those on college campuses. The property is adorned by a chateau and a carriage house adjacent to tennis and basketball courts. The structures are surrounded by five miles of hiking trails.

The Boeing property is about a 30-minute drive north of St. Louis at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The land once belonged to the wealthy Desloge family, whose roots in Missouri go back more than two centuries.

Boeing acquired the property when it merged with fellow aerospace giant McDonnell Douglas in 1997. The Boeing Leadership Center opened in 1999.

One California facilities manager told an industry publication in 2000 that the campus was a “velvet prison,” because while the amenities were top-notch, almost all the Boeing employees who went there for training and corporate retreats didn’t have a car and there was nowhere else to walk to.

The source familiar with the church’s business dealings spoke to the RFT the condition of anonymity for fear of drawing the group’s animus. He proved his bona fides by providing more than twenty of the church’s bank statements, a loan application, paperwork from the IRS granting the church tax-exempt status and a photocopy of Taylor’s passport.

The source tells the RFT that he aided the church in their attempts to buy a hotel in Houston as well as with their attempts to secure financing for the Boeing property.

The loan application for the Houston hotel says that the church has almost $7 million in a savings account and has brought in $26 million in gross revenue over the past two years. Curiously, on the loan application for the hotel in Texas, the church listed their street address as 16805 New Halls Ferry Road, which is the address for the Boeing Leadership Center property.

The source says the church is still actively trying to buy the property, but that Boeing appears hesitant to sell to them.

The source says a loan applicant listing as a street address a property they don’t own is odd, but on par with the unusual manner in which he has seen Taylor’s church conduct business. Business representatives for the church were prone to long phone calls at irregular hours, the source says. He adds that representatives from the church often referred to “having to check with” a board of directors, but that he came to suspect this board doesn’t actually exist.

click to enlarge Advertising brochure Photo from brochure advertising property at 16805 New Halls Ferry Road for sale.
In 2019, the News-Herald of Southgate, Michigan, published a lengthy investigation of Joshua Media Industries International, another organization run by Taylor. An individual who left the church told reporter Colin Maloney that at a property southwest of Detroit, numerous people spent hours a day cold-calling and messaging people on Facebook to solicit donations. Some of these people lived at the church, sleeping on mattresses or pieces of plywood, the former member said. Maloney reported that tax records show the church brings in millions of dollars a year in Michigan. The church also operates a “dream interpretation phone line.”

Former members told Maloney the church is a “slave labor cult.” They described working long hours in the church’s call center, as well as witnessing physical assaults. They also said Taylor frequently had sexual relations with female church members.

The source familiar with the church’s business dealings tells the RFT that the church is increasingly having trouble securing financing for its purchases. He cites one instance in which it received preliminary approval from a lender that specializes in loans to faith-based organizations.

However, the source alleges that the lender scuttled the deal once they did their due diligence.

“As soon as they googled him, they saw all the negativity out there,” the source says.

We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected] or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull. Coming soon: Riverfront Times Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting St. Louis stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

7 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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