A state appellate court has temporarily halted a lower court's decision that imposed a fine and jail sentence on a pastor for running a 24/7 homeless ministry at his church.
In a statement released Thursday, the religious liberty law firm First Liberty Institute announced that the Sixth Appellate District on the Court of Appeals of Ohio has put on hold the criminal sentence against Pastor Chris Avell, who leads Dad's Place, a church based in Bryan, Ohio.
Last month, a judge from the Bryan Municipal Court ordered Avell to pay a $200 fine and issued a 60-day suspended jail sentence for keeping his church open around the clock to care for the homeless.
“This is the second time that an Ohio appellate court has recognized that Dad’s Place’s case presents a strong likelihood to succeed on appeal,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute. “We are grateful to the court for granting this stay and will continue to fight until city officials in Bryan abandon their harassment of Dad’s Place and Pastor Chris.”
First Liberty Institute described the city's actions as an “aggressive attack” on the church through legal means. The church faced accusations of zoning violations and was subjected to “middle-of-the-night fire inspections” and “police antagonism.” The law firm also argued that the city exhibited a double standard in enforcing fire codes.
“While city officials demand the church install an expensive fire suppression system, the city does not require all of its motels, most of its apartment complexes, and even a senior living facility to install fire suppression systems in their buildings,” stated First Liberty.
In a video interview, Ryan Gardner from First Liberty Institute expressed his disbelief, saying, “I have never seen a pastor get criminally charged […] with just doing the work that the church does: caring for the needy, loving those who have no one else to love them, and seeking and saving the lost.” He added, “The city doesn’t want [Avell] to do that here. To the city, the people here are the problem and these people here need to go somewhere else.”
The legal issues surrounding Dad’s Place date back to 2023 when Avell initiated the homeless ministry at his church. Several months later, the city of Bryan filed 18 criminal charges against the church.
While the city later agreed to drop the charges in exchange for Dad’s Place committing to seek necessary building certifications and zoning permits, as well as any “safety measures associated with those permits,” the church faced new criminal charges following a surprise inspection by the city in April 2024.
