Ventura County Drops Suit Against Newbury Park Church

NEWBURY PARK, CA — The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to drop their lawsuit against a Newbury Park church that violated indoor gathering orders. The case against the Godspeak Calvary Chapel was its last COVID-19 related lawsuit.

In a 5-0 closed session vote, the county voted to dismiss the lawsuit as “an act of goodwill in acknowledgment of the loosening of indoor restrictions accompanying the county’s move into the orange tier”, as it said in a statement. As COVID numbers improved between January and March, the county also dropped several lawsuits against gyms and restaurants that violated health orders.

The decision ends months of legal wrangling between the county and Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park. In August, after the church defied numerous requests to stop its crowded, maskless indoor services, the Board of Supervisors voted to authorize county counsel to pursue legal options.

The county won a two-week restraining order against the church, but the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office declined to enforce it, asking that the Ventura County Code Compliance Division enforce the injunction. Weekly indoor services continued with increased attendance, even after the church was fined $3,000 for acting in contempt of court. Meanwhile, the case attracted national headlines. Groups for and against the indoor services ban gathered outside the church, leading to occasional skirmishes.

At the time, Rob McCoy, the Godspeak pastor who was also a Thousand Oaks councilmember and former mayor who resigned in April 2020 over his refusal to close down his church, called the fine a “small price to pay.”

“We’re standing in defense of a government’s overreach and a government that would call the church non-essential,” he said in August.

Now, after the county dropped its suit and the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to strike down California’s restriction on in-home religious gatherings, McCoy remains similarly defiant.

He is refusing to drop his countersuit against the county, telling the Thousand Oaks Acorn: “You just ruined people’s lives and destroyed their businesses...you don’t get a mulligan on this.”

Related coverage:

Newbury Park Church Held In Contempt Of Court | Agoura Hills, CA Patch
Judge Denies County Request To Shut Down Church | Agoura Hills, CA Patch
Tensions Erupt As Newbury Park Church Holds Indoor Services | Agoura Hills, CA Patch