United States: 'Apostle' pastor convicted of sexually abusing three girls in his congregation
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Appellate history
2019-04-17
Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction.
Record class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
Pastor and self-styled 'Apostle', Church of Restoration of Life Ministries
Organization
Church of Restoration of Life Ministries, Palm Beach County, Florida
Archive classification
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Stubbs was pastor and self-proclaimed 'Apostle' of the small congregation the victim's family belonged to; he told her being an Apostle meant he spoke for God, and told her that if a boy touched her he, as her Apostle, would have to remove the resulting 'spirits.' A second congregant testified she did not resist his advances because he was her pastor; a third testified he was a 'trusted religious advisor' to her family who acted as their spiritual authority.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
- Prophecy or divine command
- Threatened spiritual consequence
Evidence structure
Proceedings
Date in cited record · trial
Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County, Florida. Jury convicted Stephen Stubbs of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Similar-fact testimony from two other congregation members described comparable grooming and abuse by Stubbs.
2019-04-17 · appellate
District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida, Fourth District. Conviction affirmed; the court held the trial court properly admitted similar-fact evidence from the two other victims.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- claimed prophetic authority ('speaking from God') used to direct victims' compliance
- supernatural-consequence framing — telling a victim he had to 'take off' spirits placed on her by physical contact with others
- status-based subordination taught as doctrine — victims testified they did not resist because he was their pastor/Apostle
Cited record
Sources
- court opinion appellate opinion Stubbs v. State, No. 4D17-3295 (Fla. 4th DCA Apr. 17, 2019).
Full appellate opinion recounting trial testimony from the victim and two similar-fact witnesses describing Stubbs's use of his 'Apostle' status and claimed divine authority to groom and sexually abuse congregants; conviction affirmed.
Source provenance
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- Source and tier basis
- https://storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2019/04/17/stephen_stubbs_v._state_of_florida.pdf Corpus classification: court-opinion; evidentiary role: appellate-opinion. SHA-256 49841a33c7672185e21ce5973e2cfd3df2491e7fe29a3db8ef124bce353b7599
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
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