Former Fort Worth seminary provost who lied to feds sentenced to 1 year on probation
A former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor and interim provost was sentenced Wednesday to one year of supervised release, including six months of home confinement with an ankle monitor, after pleading guilty to making false statements to the FBI, court documents state.
Matthew Queen was also ordered to pay a $2,000 fine. The judgment was filed Wednesday, March 5, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Queen’s attorney, Sam Schmidt, told the Tennessean in a statement Wednesday that Queen is grateful he won’t have to serve prison time “and will seek to use his time under home confinement to help others.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI began investigating allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct related to the Southern Baptist Convention and its affiliates in 2022. In October of that year, a grand jury subpoenaed all documents in Southwestern Baptist’s possession related to sexual abuse allegations against anyone employed by or associated with the Fort Worth seminary.
In November 2022, a Southwestern Baptist employee, later identified as Terri Stovall, received a report alleging that a student committed sexual assault. Stovall, who is the dean of women at the seminary, immediately notified campus police, but no further action was taken by the institution at the time, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release. The assault wasn’t reported to prosecutors.
Stovall created a document in January 2023 describing the sexual assault allegation and the failure of the seminary to address it, according to Queen’s indictment, but a member of the seminary’s executive staff told her to make the document “go away.” Queen was present at that meeting, but told the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office that he didn’t hear the executive staff member ordering Stovall to destroy the document.
Days after his interview with authorities, Queen falsely told another employee that he had just found a notebook in his office containing notes from the meeting with Stovall and the executive staff member. The notes, which Queen claimed to have written on Jan. 26, 2023, when the meeting occurred, state that the executive staff member instructed Stovall to redirect the submission of the document to another department at Southwestern Baptist, the indictment alleges.
The falsified notes were provided in response to the grand jury subpoena. In June 2023, Queen admitted under oath that he had actually heard the executive staff member tell Stovall to destroy the document.
Queen entered his guilty plea on Oct. 16, 2024.
The staff of Southwestern Baptist said in a statement Wednesday that they are praying for Queen and his family and remain committed to preventing sexual abuse and harassment at the seminary.
“With the criminal justice process now complete regarding the charges against Matt Queen, we are hopeful that the investigation will soon reach its conclusion, allowing all parties to move forward,” the statement reads.
