On March 27, 2019, just six weeks before she was to finish a three-year internship program at Churchome College, “Kate,” who’s using a pseudonym, was suddenly expelled.

Her offense was drinking alcohol, which violated the rules of the college run by Churchome, the West Coast megachurch led by well-known pastor Judah Smith.

Yet the only reason Churchome knew about Kate’s drinking was that she had reported to the church that a male intern had gotten her and another intern drunk, and then had raped the other intern. Kate later reported to police that the male intern had sexually assaulted her. We are not using Kate’s real name because The Roys Report (TRR) has a policy of not naming sex assault victims unless they request it.

TRR has obtained a 2020 demand letter from Kate’s attorneys to Churchome Lead Pastor Judah Smith and other high-level church leaders, including Jon Smith—Judah’s cousin and former director of the internship program. The letter stated that instead of being “treated with the dignity Churchome had advertised regarding women,” Kate was blamed for the attack.

“In a meeting with Jon Smith and his wife, Rose, (Kate) was told that she should not have been drinking alcohol, that (Kate) was to blame for the fact that she was assaulted and the other student was raped, and Ms. Smith accused her of having a desire ‘to stop being a good girl, and to want to be a bad girl,’” the letter stated. It added that Jon and Rose Smith didn’t “even hear (Kate’s) version of events,” but “expelled her on the spot,” robbing her of a certificate for which she’d paid thousands of dollars and invested thousands of hours.

TRR reached out to Churchome for comment. The church replied that it “took immediate action to assist the female victim in reporting the alleged sexual assault to the Kirkland Police Department.”

It added that Kate and the others had been drinking at the time of the incident and stated: “(Kate) was a resident assistant in Churchome College and aware of the prohibition against drinking in the student living quarters, and as a result was not allowed to complete the college program that year.”

TRR also reached out for comment to Jon and Rose Smith, who are no longer employed by Churchome. The Smiths said they signed a non-disparagement agreement when they left Churchome, so they’re limited as to what they can say.

The couple said the description of their meeting with Kate in her demand letter was “exaggerated and inaccurate.” But through tears, they expressed regret that they had prioritized the church’s “power structure” and “policy” over people and had failed to “humanize” Kate.

This disregard for female victims and protection of their abusers, especially those with exceptional talents or connections to powerful people, is a pattern at Churchome, according to Kate and other alleged victims of sexual assault who spoke with TRR.

They claim the pattern comes from the “celebrity” culture at Churchome, where stars like Justin Bieber attend, and NFL quarterback Russell Wilson and Britney Spears’ embattled former business manager, Lou Taylor, serve on the board.

In a 2020 police report obtained by TRR, former Churchome intern Payton (Frye) Jones, who requested we use her name, stated she was sexually assaulted by former Churchome intern Zachary Jaquith. At the time, Zachary’s father, Justin Jaquith, pastored a Churchome location in Guadalajara, Mexico. Justin Jacquith also had ghostwritten several books for Judah Smith.

Zachary Jaquith was never charged with a crime. In the 2020 police report, Jacquith claimed that the sexual contact with Jones “was so clearly consensual in the moment.” However, last week,  Jaquith amended his claim and told TRR that Jones had sexually assaulted him.* 

But in 2020, Churchome conducted its own internal investigation. And according to an email from Churchome obtained by TRR, the church found that Zachary Jaquith had “committed sexual misconduct” against Jones. As a consequence, Churchome banned Jaquith from Churchome’s campuses and its student housing for two years.

Jones told TRR that she didn’t feel the punishment fit the crime. While Jaquith received a temporary ban from campus, Jones said she became suicidal and developed an eating disorder due to the assault and Churchome’s handling of it.

Another young woman, “Sarah,” told TRR that a star worship leader at Churchome sexually assaulted her in 2018. Sarah said when she reported the assault to Churchome leaders, they did nothing to the man she said assaulted her. But a Churchome campus administrator kicked Sarah off the campus worship team and told her she couldn’t be trusted around men—a comment that Sarah said “messed me up to this day.”

In a statement to TRR, Churchome stated that it was unaware of any accusation involving Sarah. Regarding Payton Jones, the church said it “advised her to report the allegation to local police . . . Churchome also did an internal investigation and took appropriate steps based on its determination that Payton’s accusation was credible.”

TRR also reached out to Jaquith, through his attorney, but did not receive a comment before publishing. Jacquith, however, filed a defamation lawsuit against Jones in April, shortly after Jones published some of her story on social media.

These accounts, which we’ll detail in a three-part series, come after an exposé by TRR in February, showing that Churchome re-hired a pastor credibly accused of rape. Following our report, the accused former pastor, Braylon Oliver, resigned from Churchome.

‘Culture of hypocrisy’

Kate, a pastor’s kid from Snoqualmie, Wash., said she began attending Churchome College in 2016. Almost immediately, Kate said she noticed the rules at Churchome College did not apply equally to everyone.

Kate said the church had a double standard on alcohol, for example. “A lot of people drank,” she said. “. . . If you were a favorite with staff, because of your personality or because of who you knew, you could kind of get away with things.”

According to Jon Smith, Churchome removed its prohibition against drinking from its employee handbook sometime before 2017, but the prohibition remained for college students. Smith said the new policy, combined with a “culture of hypocrisy,” created problems. What students “saw and stories they heard about some pastors” didn’t match the Bible-based perspective on alcohol Smith was teaching, he said.

Jon Smith said that on several occasions, he had to confront younger pastors who were drinking in front of Churchome College students. Smith added that two college interns once bartended at a birthday party for Chelsea Smith, Judah Smith’s wife and co-lead pastor at the church.

Cesar Rodriguez, a former Churchome College intern who worked at a local restaurant, told TRR he witnessed church staff, including Judah Smith, “drink openly and liberally among students.”

Despite these issues, Kate said she enjoyed her first two years in the internship program. But during her third year, she says she was sexually assaulted by a first-year intern, “Mark.” (Because no police report was filed and the intern wasn’t charged, TRR is not publishing the male intern’s name.)

Kate told TRR that while watching a movie in her apartment with Mark and another friend, Mark “started feeling me up” on her thigh and stomach. “He gripped my thigh at one point and . . . got very, very close to my vagina,” she said. “Eventually he went for my hand and held it and then would repeat the process all over again.”

Kate told TRR that she hadn’t even been kissed by a guy before and was “absolutely frozen in fear.”

As Mark was leaving, he gave Kate a side hug, she said, “and then slid his hand down to my butt and squeezed my right cheek twice. He smirked, said goodnight, and then left.”

Kate told TRR she felt “violated . . . like something had been taken from me because, again, I just had never been touched like that before.”

Kate said she reported the incident to Jon Smith, who initially was “appalled” by Mark’s actions and said he’d confront him. Yet, Churchome didn’t give Mark any consequences for his actions, Kate said, and Mark’s friends soon began ostracizing her.

Kate said she expressed her concerns to Smith, but nothing changed.

Smith told TRR he remembers Kate and another intern reporting that Mark had touched her leg. He confirmed that Mark received no consequences as a result of the report but said he couldn’t remember any other details about what had happened.

Kate said she began to feel like she “was in the wrong or had made a small thing into a big deal.” The experience diminished her self-confidence, she said, and made her question the point of “following rules.” At 20 years old, she said, she began to drink alcohol.

“I saw that people who drank consistently throughout the program ended up in the same spot as me with no consequences,” she wrote. “(M)ost of them seemed to be living their best life.”

Alleged sexual assault and rape

On March 2, 2019, Kate said she and a younger, female intern, whose name we’re withholding to protect her privacy, went drinking with a first-year intern, “Jeff.” (Since the male intern was never charged with a crime and there’s no record that Churchome investigated him, we are not reporting his name.)

According to the demand letter from Kate’s lawyer, Jeff had recently been expelled from Churchome for sexually inappropriate conduct with minors. However, the letter states that Churchome didn’t communicate the reason for Jeff’s expulsion, so Kate was “unaware of the potential danger” of drinking with Jeff.

Throughout the evening, Jeff encouraged Kate and her friend to take bigger and bigger “swigs from the bottle,” while he took none, according to the police report obtained by TRR. Kate said she did not know her “limits” because she was “extremely new to alcohol,” and got so drunk, she blacked out.

However, before this happened, Kate said she remembers Jeff with his “hand on my crotch, trying to do things.” Kate recalled that she told Jeff, “No, Jesus loves me,” which stopped the assault.

Kate said the next thing she remembers, she was on a bed in her friend’s apartment. Kate said her friend was on another bed and Jeff was on top of her friend. “It looked like they were having sex,” Kate told TRR, adding that her friend “was completely out of it.”

According to the police report, another intern, Jimenez Torres, told police that Jeff called him that night and asked him to come to the apartment. Torres said he found both Kate and her friend intoxicated and partially undressed. Torres added that Jeff did not seem intoxicated.

Jared Weathers, who stated he was friends with Jeff, also provided a statement to police. In the statement, Weathers said Jeff denied having any sexual contact with Kate and her friend, but claimed the women were “tripping” and saying things like, “rape me, no rape (Kate).” Weathers told police that a couple days later, Jeff changed his story and admitted kissing and touching Kate’s friend but denied having sex with her.

According to the police report, Jeff claimed he kissed Kate’s friend and touched her vagina but did not have sex with her. Jeff also claimed Kate’s friend consented to the encounter, the report said.

Kate said that at first, both she and her friend were not sure what Jeff had done to them. But over the following days, they began to piece together their memories and became convinced Jeff had sexually assaulted Kate and raped Kate’s friend.

Reporting assault leads to expulsion

On March 20, 2019—18 days after the incident with Jeff—Kate said she and her friend met with Donna Sandberg, a member of Churchome’s Leadership Team Council, and told her about the alleged rape. Kate said she didn’t initially tell Churchome about her own assault because she wanted the focus to be on her friend.

This prompted Jon and Rose Smith, who oversaw the internship program, to interview Kate’s friend, Jeff, and other interns about the alleged assault.

On March 27, Kate said she was called into a meeting with the Smiths. But instead of asking for her side of the story, Kate said Rose Smith asked her why she was drinking that night.

Kate said the Smiths then explained that because Kate was a third-year student and a resident assistant, she had a lot of leadership over her friend and Jeff, who were younger interns. Kate said the Smiths suggested that Kate’s leadership had led Jeff and Kate’s friend into that night, which “insinuated that I led to (my friend) getting raped.”

The Smiths then told Kate she couldn’t be a part of the program anymore. Kate said she began crying and complaining about how unfair it was to kick her out of the program when male interns who had assaulted women were allowed to stay. But the Smiths didn’t budge, Kate said, and Kate moved home the same day.

The Smiths told TRR they now regret the way they treated Kate. They explained that because Kate was a resident assistant, Churchome had certain expectations of her, and one was being an example to the younger interns. But as the couple reflected on what had happened, they both got choked up.

“Had we been more compassionate to what (Kate) was going through, we might have had a different response,” Rose said, pausing to compose herself. “But I can’t go back and change the past. And it’s so hard because through all of this, we still care for (Kate). . . . And my remorse is that we gave into the system before we humanized her. And she may not have been the one actually, physically raped, but her experience was traumatizing. And we didn’t take that into account. And I totally own that.”

Jon Smith added: “Once you get outside of the brand of it all, the evangelical system, and you’re just with real people . . . I have these lucid thoughts of, ‘What world was I in? Like, what was I thinking? How did I so quickly, so easily dehumanize people because of morality, because of a superiority complex?’”

Attempts at advocacy with Churchome fail

In the weeks after her expulsion from Churchome College, Kate reported to police that Jeff had not only sexually assaulted her friend but Kate too. The case was referred to the King County Prosecutor’s Office but did not result in charges.

Kate also connected with the Sexual Violence Law Center, a nonprofit law firm in Seattle for sex abuse survivors. On October 24, 2019, Attorney Monte Jewell sent a letter on Kate’s behalf to Pastor Judah Smith, requesting a meeting.

The letter stated that Kate “believes that the risk of trauma from sexual assault at Churchome College was and remains needlessly high.” The letter requested a meeting between Kate and Judah Smith to discuss “a more protective sexual assault policy.”

Churchome General Counsel Troy Anderson responded to the request, with stipulations regarding a meeting between Kate and Judah Smith, according to emails obtained by TRR.

First, the meeting needed to take place on a Sunday at Churchome’s Kirkland, Wash., campus. Second, attendees would be limited to Kate and her lawyer and Judah and his lawyer. And third, “(Kate), her family, and (her lawyers) need to agree not to tell anyone that (Kate) is meeting with Judah or met with Judah.”

Attorney Jewell said the stipulations were “generally acceptable” but said Kate wanted her parents to attend the meeting. Jewell also asked that Smith and Anderson not tell anyone that they had met with Kate.

Anderson objected to both these requests but eventually conceded. Yet, in an email thread obtained by TRR, Anderson alleged that Kate had discussed details of “her situation” with people at church and had “posted on social media about it.” Given Kate’s actions, Anderson said he and Smith would like the freedom to tell people at church that they had met with Kate. (Kate told TRR she spoke only with a few close friends about what had happened and never posted anything on social media about it.)

In an email to Kate, Jewell wrote that Anderson’s email included “inappropriate and victim-blaming language.” He also stated, “During my conversation with Troy Anderson, he initially asked me to agree with him that you had not been sexually assaulted and to discuss and agree about the number of sexual assaults which had occurred at Churchome.”

Jewell said he “declined to engage” in the conversation with Anderson. He added, “When someone who has survived a sexual assault . . . chooses to communicate to a third party about a sexual assault — which is desirable and normal — the institution should continue to energetically protect that person’s confidentiality, autonomy, and their sense of safety.”

Jewell concluded, “. . . I worry that very basic knowledge may be lacking among Churchome leadership about sexual assault intervention and prevention in an institutional setting like Churchome. To me that may mean that the meeting and the advocacy work you are contemplated (sic) may be challenging.”

When asked about his conversation with Jewell, Anderson said he asked Jewell to clarify if Kate had also been sexually assaulted, “which is something I had not heard before.” Anderson denied ever asking Jewell to agree that Kate was not sexually assaulted or to agree about the number of sexual assaults.

Kate told TRR that due to Churchome’s responses, she never met with Judah Smith. Instead, on October 1, 2020, Shira Kaufman, a victims’ rights attorney, sent a demand letter to Judah Smith and other Churchome leaders on Kate’s behalf.

The letter accused Churchome of “breach of contract,” “defamation,” and “intentional and/or negligent infliction of emotional distress.” It demanded Churchome reimburse Kate $24,500 in tuition and housing costs for a certificate of completion she never received. It also asked Churchome to pay Kate $4,800 for counseling, as well as damages for “additional pain and suffering” and “an inexplicable gap in her resume, which will hurt her future employment.”

Churchome’s lawyer responded 26 days later, saying the church had “reconsidered its decision to expel (Kate) from its intern program and will issue her a certificate of completion.” The church also said it would “pay for past or future counseling for (Kate) in an amount up to $2,000.”

However, the church declined to pay a financial settlement to Kate, stating “(Kate) was an adult and no special relationship existed that would establish a legal duty of care from Churchome to (Kate).”

The church also noted that for “reasons unrelated to (Kate’s) allegations, Churchome discontinued the Churchome College ministry at the conclusion of the 2019-20 academic year.”

Kate said she decided not to pursue legal action against Churchome and accepted the church’s offer. Still, she said she was profoundly disappointed by Churchome’s response, especially compared to the care she saw modeled by her father and mother in the church her father pastored.

“My parents were ready to drop everything for someone in need of help. . . . And it was really heartbreaking to have people in leadership do the opposite of what should have been done.”

Kate added that her experience with Churchome hurt her relationship with God. “When you have someone in power treat you like that, it’s hard to believe you’re not a bad person, and God doesn’t feel that way about you,” she said.

She added that she used to be “so passionate about worship and leading worship.” But after her Churchome experience, Kate said she didn’t “touch a piano again for two years.”

Yet Kate said over time, she’s come to understand that “God is not the pastoral staff that hurt me. God is not the men that sexually assaulted me. God is not the church that failed me in a time of crisis. . . . People fail, people hurt, people make horrific mistakes, but not God.”

In our next article, we’ll tell former intern Payton Jones’ story.

*This article has been updated to include Zachary Jacquith’s new claim that Payton Jones sexually assaulted him and to correct the date Kate was expelled.

Julie Roys is a veteran investigative reporter and founder of The Roys Report. She also previously hosted a national talk show on the Moody Radio Network, called Up for Debate, and has worked as a TV reporter for a CBS affiliate. Her articles have appeared in numerous periodicals.