A lawyer representing a Louisiana pastor who is allegedly defying Gov. Jon Bel Edwards’s stay-at-home order has been hospitalized with a case of the coronavirus.
The lawyer, Jeff Wittenbrink, who attended two events in April at Tony Spell’s Life Tabernacle Church, has been hospitalized since Tuesday with worsening conditions, according to the Advocate. Wittenbrink said that he did not feel ill during the church events, which hundreds of people attended, and that he has “no idea” how he contracted the virus.
“I went to Sam’s. I went to Walmart. I went to Lowe’s. I used the gas pumps. I mean, I just wasn’t careful. God knows where I got it. The bad thing is, I might have spread to somebody. I feel bad about that,” he said.
Wittenbrink, 59, is the local counsel for Roy Moore, the controversial former judge, representing Spell after the pastor was arrested in March and charged with six counts of defying Edwards’s order. Wittenbrink spoke at an April 2 event at Life Tabernacle, along with Moore, and detailed the church’s plans to fight Edwards in court, accusing the governor of infringing on the First Amendment by asking churches to shut down.
Spell, who previously told the Washington Examiner that his “extreme faith and deep convictions” compelled him to continue holding services during the coronavirus pandemic, said that he was praying for Wittenbrink’s recovery. Spell also said that he has notified his congregation of his lawyer’s illness.
For his own part, Wittenbrink said that his diagnosis would not deter him in his determination to defend Spell in court, adding that, as the virus has spread, Life Tabernacle has begun to implement social distancing at services and asked members to sanitize their hands when they enter the church.
“I’m very proud of Pastor Spell,” he said. “I think he’s one of the few people who understands we shouldn’t just throw away our civil liberties without a fight just because there’s some kind of crisis going on.”
