An Illinois appellate court reversed a trial court’s order granting an in camera review and the disclosure of a megachurch and its attorneys’ communications to its former pastor, who accused the church and its counsel of defamation, after concluding the lower court erred in applying the crime-fraud exception.
The Illinois Appellate Court for the First District, Sixth Division, settled a dispute involving attorney Sally Wagenmaker and her law firm, Wagenmaker & Oberly, and Hoogendoorn & Talbot, who are accused of helping Evangelical Christian megachurch HBC allegedly make defamatory statements against its founder and former senior pastor, James S. MacDonald. MacDonald, who claims he was wrongfully terminated, alleges the church made statements “intended to destroy his reputation with the HBC congregation and the evangelical Christian community” following an investigation into purported financial irregularities, according to the court’s March 1 opinion.
