After a two-year delay, one of three sexual assault charges against Bruxy Cavey, former pastor of the Ontario megachurch The Meeting House, has been stayed.

Carvey’s defense lawyer, Megan Savard, argued on Monday to Ontario Court Justice Michael K. Wendl that the duration of time between the initial sexual assault charge, made by Hamilton police in June 2022, was too long and infringed upon Cavey’s rights to trial within a reasonable time. According to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a trial in Provincial Court must begin within 18 months of the charge and within 30 months in Superior Court. Justice Wendl, on July 22, ruled in favor of Savard’s argument, effectively putting an end to prosecution. 

Outside the courtroom on Monday, Cavey said that while he acknowledges a moral failure, “I don’t believe I failed legally.”

The charge was brought forward after an independent investigator found that Cavey had been involved in a yearslong sexual relationship with a congregant who sought counseling. The congregant, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, accused Cavey of pressuring her into having a secret sexual relationship. In a 2022 interview with “The Star,” she said Cavey told her that “what they were doing wasn’t right but that God was permitting it.” She stayed silent for four years after the relationship ended. “I was in a brainwashed state,” she told the Toronto paper. 

In a blog post titled “my confession,” during his resignation from the church in early 2022, Cavey described the relationship as “an extramarital affair … my greatest failure, my darkest sin.” 

In August 2022, The Meeting House leadership announced the findings of a church investigation into accusations against Cavey, saying it had found two additional credible claims of sexual abuse and a fourth claim that amounted to “sexual misconduct,” with one accuser being a minor at the time.

Following the abrupt end to her trial, the complainant told “The Star” that Cavey “walked away on a technicality,” adding, “I grieve now not only for myself, but all those who dare speak truth to power and are crushed again by the same power that made it impossible for them to consent in the first place.”

The remaining two sexual assault charges, by separate women, issued in December 2023, remain active. However, seven months later, trial dates have yet to be set.

Cavey became the senior pastor of The Meeting House, formerly known as Upper Oaks Community Church, in 1997. With his long hair and tattoos, Cavey grew the church into one known for appealing to those alienated from Christianity and church traditions. Under Cavey’s leadership, the church grew to a congregation of more than 5,000 across 19 campuses in the larger Toronto metropolitan area. 

In July of this year, the Meeting House suspended its services in the face of difficulty obtaining insurance. According to its website, the church’s programming is paused because its insurer won’t renew its abuse liability insurance.

Chloë-Arizona Fodor is an author at Religion News Service.