Matt Shea demands $24 million from city of Spokane over council’s condemnation of former mayor

Former Washington lawmaker Matt Shea is demanding $24 million from the city of Spokane, making him the third person to file a claim over the Spokane City Council’s official condemnation of former Mayor Nadine Woodward for joining him at a controversial event last year.

Shea’s attorneys claim that the city and the City Council violated his rights under the U.S. and state constitutions and is continuing to do “harm and damage to Pastor Shea.”

In a prepared statement, Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson rejected Shea’s claims.

“Council President Wilkerson strongly denies the claims and allegations in Matt Shea’s claim for damages, just like the complaints by Sean Feucht and former Mayor Woodward, and is confident the legal process will reject them, too,” Wilkerson stated.

As smoke from fires in Medical Lake and Elk shrouded Spokane in August 2023, Woodward joined Shea on stage at the Podium during a stop on the Kingdom to the Capitol tour, a religious and political series organized by self-described Christian nationalist Sean Feucht’s organization Let Us Worship. Shortly before introducing Woodward to the stage, Shea compared same-sex marriage and transgender rights to the fires that had devastated the nearby communities.

Woodward publicly denounced Shea soon after, calling him a threat to democracy and distancing herself from his political views. She maintained that she had not known that Shea would be present at the event and believed its purpose was to pray for the victims of the Oregon Road and Gray fires.

Shea posted soon after on X disputing Woodward’s characterization of the events.

“This is an annual event planned months ago to worship Jesus,” Shea wrote. “It wasn’t for ‘fire victims.’ She was invited and she accepted BEFORE the fires started.”

A month after the event, the Spokane City Council voted 4-3 to formally denounce Woodward’s attendance, with Councilman Michael Cathcart, Jonathan Bingle and then-Councilman Ryan Oelrich voting in opposition.

The resolution noted that a 2019 independent investigation spearheaded by the Washington House of Representatives concluded Shea’s actions in the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge in 2016 amounted to “an act of domestic terrorism against the United States.” In response, he was stripped of leadership roles in the House, and leaders in both parties called for him to resign.

The resolution added that Shea also distributed a four-page manifesto in 2018 titled “Biblical Basis for War,” which describes the Christian God as a “warrior,” condemns abortion and same-sex marriage, and advocates for killing men who don’t subscribe to biblical law.

The Washington State Bar Association last week dismissed a grievance filed against Shea, an attorney, after he was alleged to have planned and participated in political violence, citing “constitutional scrutiny.”

The dismissal, which came in February and was later affirmed in May, rested on Shea’s freedom of speech and lack of any criminal charges following the 2019 independent investigation by the Legislature. Shea has claimed that the dismissal exonerated him. However, if Shea were to ever be charged with a crime related to anything described in the investigation’s report, the bar may reopen the grievance case against Shea.

In his claim of damages, Shea argues that the resolution denouncing Woodward, as well as individual comments by council members, paint Shea as a domestic terrorist despite there never being a criminal trial on those charges.

“Pastor Shea has never been charged with, much less convicted of, any crime associated with domestic terrorism, political violence, or taking up arms against the United States,” the claim states.

Feucht filed a claim of damages against the city in June, alleging that the City Council violated his constitutional right to religious expression and freedom of speech, which he said were discouraged by the denouncement of Woodward for, among other things, attending an event with “known anti-LGBTQ extremist, Sean Feucht …” At the time, he said he would settle for $2 million.

He has since sued the city.

A month later, Woodward filed her own claim for damages, alleging that the city council infringed on her free speech rights and interfered with her election, which she lost to Lisa Brown.

“A four member majority of the Spokane City Council, in violation of the state and federal constitution, ‘condemned’ speech by Woodward which speech is protected by the state and federal constitutions. The City Council did so with the intent of interfering with the then-upcoming mayoral election and promoting the candidacy of Woodward’s opponent,” Woodward wrote in the claim.

Woodward offered to settle her claim for $1.4 million.