By Mia Gallegos | FāVS News Reporter
UPDATED: This story has been updated, correcting when the lawsuits were filed.
Spokane’s Faith Baptist Church has been the subject of several instances of assault over the years, with these circumstances being discussed in detail by two survivors of abuse within the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) movement on their podcast “Cult Confessions.”
Josie Pickens and Kristy Vestal, the two co-hosts of the podcast, have shared their respective experiences as committed members of IFB churches on the podcast. Pickens’ case of abuse took place at Faith Baptist.
However, due to competing demands, the two have discontinued the show, Pickens said, but not before airing one last episode on June 15.
Their goal in producing the podcast originally was to encourage other victims to come forward, she said.
Their call resonated. Former church and Faith Baptist Academy member Shelby McGee, 29, is now speaking out about the alleged abuse she said occurred when she was 16, more than a decade ago.
Both Pickens and McGee recently filed lawsuits suing Faith Baptist Church seeking compensation for the alleged wrongs done to them as children on church grounds. McGee’s case also includes the principal of the academy associated with the church, as he was her alleged abuser.
A family friend’s access
McGee’s family moved to Spokane in 2005 when she was only 9-years-old and began attending Faith Baptist Church and years after, the Academy. Her family grew close to the Kobernats, another family at the church. Dan Kobernat, the father of the family, was also the principal of Faith Baptist Academy.
McGee — who was good with kids — took up a sort of babysitting role with the Kobernats, and became close family friends with them.
Her father lived in Tennessee around the time that her family had moved to Spokane, so she would spend the summers with him and come back to Washington during the school year.
“It seemed innocent at the time, but I think the grooming really started happening when (Kobernat) would send me letters when I was in Tennessee,” McGee said.
Alleged years of abuse
According to McGee, Kobernat would be in communication with McGee through letters and gifts that he’d send to her and her brother while they were out of state during the summer months. McGee thinks that sending the letters to her brother was a way for him to cover up the true intent of his correspondence with her.
When McGee was 16, an instance came when her mother was going to be away for the weekend and her stepdad was working late. Kobernat offered to stop by and sleep on the couch so the McGee kids wouldn’t be home alone.
“It made sense,” McGee said. “But instead of going to sleep on the couch, he came into my room and laid on my bed. That first morning, nothing happened. But then he came back again.”
McGee alleges that Kobernat came back morning after morning for nearly two years to grope and dry hump her in the early hours of the day, sneaking through a window in the home to get into her room. McGee hadn’t been informed on sex and sexual assault, both of which are viewed as unmentionables within IFB churches.
“My parents were told not to talk to your kids about that stuff. So I didn’t know. My church and school both didn’t teach sex education,” McGee said.
The grooming that persisted took place in various locations. McGee would often get called to Kobernat’s office during school hours to file paperwork, where she alleges she would be taken advantage of by her family friend who was still sneaking into her room almost nightly. Her parents were home for most of these alleged instances, McGee explaining how he would sneak into her room, climb back out the window he came from and go to the front door to say hello to her parents.
Discovery and cover-up
Things came to a halt after those two years, when Kobernat’s wife happened upon the text messages that he was exchanging with McGee at early hours of the day and late hours of the night. However, the texts were all that anyone knew about McGee and Kobernat’s relationship.
“On the day he told me that his wife had found our text messages, he said he would never admit to anything so don’t say anything,” McGee said.
The school brought the information of the text messages to Greg Boyle, the pastor of the church who recently retired from Faith Baptist. As the pastor, he was the overseer of all operations in both the school and the church. Boyle came to McGee’s home to ask her about the situation.
“He interrogated me on what happened but I only admitted to the text messages because (Kobernat) said he’d never admit to anything else,” McGee said. “So I played it off like it was innocent.”
Student backlash and suspicions
With concerns surrounding the reputation of the school following these allegations being released, Kobernat was released from Faith Baptist Academy. The student body loved him as the principal so decided to cast their blame on McGee for being the reason why he left, McGee recalled.
“One of my friends went home super mad at me and her parents told her ‘don’t you dare be mad at Shelby. She’s the child in this situation,’” McGee said.
This friend, Sarah Langerak, returned to school the next day and they repaired their friendship. Langerak was the support system to McGee years later as she wrote out her police report.
Langerak explained that she always had a suspicion that it wasn’t merely texts that were being exchanged between McGee and Kobernat.
“There was always something in the back of my mind that told me there was something more,” Langerak said.
These suspicions were confirmed when Langerak and her father were taking (Kobernat) across the state to purchase a bus. Langerak’s father was a mechanic and offered to be of help in terms of determining which vehicle would be the best to purchase.
They stopped at a gas station where Langerak’s father hopped out of the car to go inside. Kobernat didn’t move from the passenger seat. Langerak thought this was strange because of how the idea of men and women being alone together was belabored as sinful within the IFB.
“The second my dad got into the station he turned around and said, ‘Sarah, have you heard any rumors about Shelby and I dating?’” Langerak said.
She told him that she hadn’t, and he instructed her to shut any of those rumors down if she heard them. That interaction stuck with Langerak for years following it. Her and McGee remained close, and the question of what more had occurred between the two continued to nag at her.
“Two years ago I outright asked her. I was like ‘Shelby it was more than texting wasn’t it,’” Langerak said.
Legal challenges
After explaining the truth of the situation, Langerak was McGee’s biggest champion in getting a police report written.
However, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations in Washington State, the report fell flat.
“The legal age of consent in Washington is 16,” McGee said. “The detective who was assigned my case said he doesn’t agree with it, but from my case it looks like it was manipulated consent. So either way it was still consent.”
McGee explained how there is a new law that explains that if there is ever an instance of sexual engagement between an individual and an authority figure — regardless of consensuality — it is considered assault. However, this law can’t be applied to past cases.
Despite the outcome of the original report filed, McGee is finding other ways to bring her story out of the dark.
Finding their voice
Rachael Pursch, McGee’s best friend, talked about how proud she was of her friend for making her voice heard after being told to keep quiet for those years of abuse. As a survivor of sexual assault herself, Pursch said she knows the courage it takes to bring something that traumatizing forward.
It can be difficult to discuss traumatic experiences even with close friends. The fear of being burdensome to those around you whom you care about is something many survivors of different types of abuse may consider. Pursch pushed back on the idea of being burdensome to those who care.
“Coming from both sides, but speaking as one of the people that survivors have trusted, I have only ever counted it as an honor, privilege and a blessing,” Pursch said, in reference to being told stories from the different traumas people around her have endured. “I’ve never once dreamt of it being a burden. Go out on a limb with a safe person and give them the opportunity to walk that path with you.”
McGee, Pickens and Vestal are a few of the individuals working to be heard and encourage others to do the same with the support of their respective and combined communities. Despite “Cult Confessions” ending, the stories they’ve aired will remain. Pickens said they will also continue to work together to bring justice to those around them and to their younger selves.
“[We] will continue to support victims of spiritual and sexual abuse in whatever way we can,” she said.
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