A Look At Recent Developments In Stories We've Covered So Far
From the Grace City Church-affiliated Bible study leader facing sex crimes charges to the pharmacist facing new federal charges for vaccine fraud
From time to time, it’s important to take a look back at the ground we’ve covered. I wanted to take a moment this weekend to take a look at some recent developments in a few stories I’ve brought to light through my reporting on Substack and in other publications. I also want to give readers a bit of a heads-up about where we’re going in the coming weeks.
I think the best way to do that is to address each one by one. So I’ll start with the one I get asked about most often.
Michael E. Wilson: The Grace City Church-affiliated Bible study leader charged with nine felonies for sexually-related offenses. People ask and email me about this case a lot and I have been keeping an eye on it. His trial was pushed back to July 22 and on July 12 it was postponed once again. This time it was pushed back to Nov. 3, 2023. The motion to continue was made because the discovery process is still ongoing. “Defense to retain an investigator after completion of discovery,” the clerk wrote in the special minutes from the trial extension hearing. You can see the superior court minutes for that here. This is par for the course for criminal trials and I wouldn’t be surprised if the trial isn’t pushed back again, although the “speedy trial expiration” is Oct. 11. I’ll keep you posted if there are new developments.
Geoff Reynolds: The East Wenatchee pharmacist who was caught wasting Covid-19 vaccine doses and then fraudulently signing at least two firefighters’ vaccine cards so they could avoid getting the mandated jabs was charged in federal court this month. The felony charge is for making “False Statements Relating to Health Care Matters” and it’s punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. After getting a tip that a Grace City Church-affiliated firefighter was involved in a vaccine scam and then obtaining proof from public records I requested from the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department, I broke that story last year. Since then it’s been covered by large and small media outlets region-wide. You can read through the charging documents here if you’d like. The two firefighters, Capt. Seth Ellis and Firefighter Josh Bollinger, who were involved in the scam were allowed to resign rather than face official termination. Bollinger now works for Kingdom Builders Inc., Grace City Church’s in-house construction company. He also helped build GCC Pastor Josh McPherson’s palatial home near Monitor, Wa.