Pastor Micahn Carter: Resignation, Appeals Ruling, and New Church

Micahn Carter is a former megachurch pastor from Yakima, Washington, who resigned from Together Church in 2019 after a sexual encounter with his personal assistant, was later publicly accused by her of rape, and lost a defamation lawsuit he brought against her when a Washington appeals court dismissed the case in December 2025. He is now planning to launch a new church in Indianapolis in the fall of 2026.

The 2019 Resignation From Together Church

Carter and his wife, April, led Together Church in Yakima for thirteen years. In 2018, Carter hired a church member named Mary Jones as his personal assistant.¹ On April 29, 2019, a sexual encounter took place between the two in a church office.²

The two have never agreed on what happened. Jones described it as rape, saying Carter made sexual advances and assaulted her, leaving her “unable to function” and “disoriented.”³ Carter said it was consensual, describing in a court filing that “bodily contact rocketed and led to sexual intercourse” after the two hugged. The appeals court later noted that his declaration “did not detail anything said by Jones that expressed consent to intercourse.”²

In early June 2019, Carter resigned. He told his congregation he had been involved in an “inappropriate incident” he was “not proud” of, attributing his behavior to a bipolar disorder diagnosis he said he received the day after the encounter. The appeals court noted he never identified the diagnosing physician. No criminal charges were ever filed. According to court records, Jones initially declined to contact police because she was frightened.²

Alabama, Church of the Highlands, and the Public Accusation

After leaving Yakima, Carter moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and joined Church of the Highlands, one of the largest churches in the country. The church said it was directing a “ministerial restoration process” for him at the request of his pastoral overseers in Washington, with a year barred from public ministry followed by a year of supervised ministry.⁴⁵

By 2020, Carter had resumed preaching. When Pastor Chris Hodges introduced him to the Church of the Highlands congregation that July, Hodges did not disclose the sexual misconduct allegations behind Carter’s departure from Yakima.⁴

On July 13, 2021, Jones sent a letter directly to Hodges accusing Carter of rape. Eight days later, she published a Medium blog post titled “Moving Forward” laying out the allegations publicly for the first time.³ Within about ten days, Carter and his wife resigned from Church of the Highlands. Hodges announced the departure, saying the church was “no longer involved in his rehabilitation.”⁶

The Defamation Lawsuit and the Appeals Court Ruling

Carter sued. He filed a defamation case in Alabama in October 2022 seeking at least $500,000 in damages; that case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. In July 2023, he refiled in Yakima County Superior Court, arguing Jones had defamed him by labeling a consensual encounter as rape.⁵¹

Jones moved to dismiss under Washington’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, the state’s anti-SLAPP law. In February 2024, Yakima County Superior Court Judge Kevin Naugh denied her motion, ruling that the conflicting accounts of consent needed to be sorted out by a jury and finding no evidence Carter was a public figure.¹

Jones appealed. On December 30, 2025, a three-judge panel of the Washington Court of Appeals, Division III, reversed the trial court and ordered the lawsuit dismissed in a 100-page published opinion.²

The panel held that sexual conduct between a pastor and a church employee is a matter of public concern, and that the anti-SLAPP law “protects such a young woman when she rightly informs and educates the public of sexual abuse in a pastoral or church setting.”¹ Disagreeing with the trial judge, it classified Carter as a “limited-purpose public figure” because he had spoken publicly about the controversy, promoted himself as an evangelist, and continued to seek public ministry. That classification required him to prove actual malice.⁷

The court found Jones’s Medium post was protected opinion rather than a provably false statement of fact, and her letter to Hodges was covered by common-interest privilege because Church of the Highlands had a legitimate interest in knowing about a pastor on its staff.³ The judges also concluded Carter had not shown reckless disregard for the truth, noting that even if Jones’s use of “rape” did not precisely match the criminal definition, the conduct she described bore the “earmarks of rape,” and the power imbalance between a pastor and his assistant was relevant.¹

The court ordered the suit dismissed and directed Carter to reimburse Jones for her attorney’s fees at both the trial and appellate levels.² Jones’s attorney said the ruling should “empower survivors to speak freely about their personal experiences without fear of retaliation.”⁵

Where Carter Is Now

Carter kept preaching after leaving Church of the Highlands. In October 2024, he preached at Forward City Church in Columbia, South Carolina, for a “College Weekend” event; the church’s Facebook post called him “our very own Pastor,” though he was not listed as a staff member on its website.⁸ He also reportedly preached at churches in Los Angeles and New York City.⁹

On December 5, 2025, Carter, then 46, and his wife announced on Instagram that they were relocating to Indianapolis to launch a new church called “The Place,” scheduled to open in the fall of 2026.¹⁰ Grammy-nominated singer Danny Gokey and pastor-singer Tauren Wells were among those publicly supporting the announcement.⁹ In a sermon at Revere Church around the same time, Carter described the events surrounding his 2019 resignation as “infidelity” and “the biggest mistake of my life,” and said he had been working to “build the trust of my wife, who is still with me.”

1
Yakima Herald-Republic. Appellate Court Throws Out Pastor Micahn Carter’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Woman Accusing Him of Rape
2
Washington State Courts. Carter v. Jones, No. 40285-1-III
3
MinistryWatch. WA Court Throws Out Micahn Carter Defamation Lawsuit
4
AL.com. Church of the Highlands Cuts Ties With Minister Accused of Sex Abuse
5
Yakima Herald-Republic. Former Together Church Pastor Micahn Carter Sues Woman Who Accused Him of Raping Her
6
Premier Christian News. Alabama Megachurch Cuts Ties With Former Pastor After Accusations of Sexual Assault
7
AL.com. Defamation Lawsuit by Former Pastor Against Rape Accuser Dismissed
8
Roy’s Report. Pastor Micahn Carter Accused of Rape Returns to Preaching at South Carolina Megachurch
9
Bishop-Accountability.org. Disgraced Former Megachurch Pastor Micahn Carter Launching New Church in Indy
10
Christian Post. Micahn Carter to Launch New Church While Fighting Rape Allegation