Updated

Updated · WBRZ · Jun 25

Pastor Tony Spell Arrested for 2nd-Degree Battery After Highway Attack on Neighbor

Updated

Updated · WBRZ · Jun 25

Pastor Tony Spell Arrested for 2nd-Degree Battery After Highway Attack on Neighbor

Q: After a pastor's violent arrest, he claimed death threats were made. Why do police say no reports were ever filed?

Police say no reports were ever filed because their records do not show any complaint matching Tony Spell’s claims of death threats, rape threats, or repeated harassment by the Sherwin family’s son. Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran said the department reviewed its records and found five incidents involving Spell or his wife over the past four years, but only one involved a complaint against the neighboring family. Corcoran disputed claims from Spell’s attorney and from Central City News editor Woody Jenkins that earlier warnings had been reported to police and ignored. He said, “That’s not true,” and challenged Spell’s side to provide dates and times for any alleged calls or complaints so the department could audit its system. That is why police say no reports were filed: they say there is no documentation in their system to support the pastor’s account of prior death threats. Corcoran also denied that his department failed to investigate complaints. The only related report publicly noted was a March complaint filed by Spell’s wife about obscene gestures by the young man. That is separate from the more serious threats Spell later described after his arrest. Spell, meanwhile, has argued he acted as a “natural protector” after the neighbor’s son allegedly threatened his wife and grandchildren. But at this stage, police say the official record does not back up those claims.

2 articles · Updated · WBRZ · Jun 25

Mark Anthony "Tony" Spell was booked Tuesday into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a second-degree battery charge after allegedly running across a four-lane highway and attacking a man who lives across from his church.
Home security video cited in the report shows Spell and the victim punching near the road, then Spell allegedly throwing the man to the ground, getting on top of him and continuing to hit him; the victim was treated at a hospital.
Woody Jenkins said the confrontation was sparked by threats against Spell and his family that had been reported to police, but Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran said no such reports had been made.
The Sherwins, the victim's family, tied the arrest to Spell's long-running feud with neighbors and police after his pandemic-era church services; a lawsuit Spell filed in 2023 was dismissed in 2024 and again recently.
Spell, a controversial Louisiana pastor previously cited in 2020 over COVID-era services and arrested that year in a separate aggravated-assault case, bonded out Tuesday night.