CHARLOTTE – At the 2002 church service where a woman says she was injured in a spirituality-induced fall, several church members also were being “slain in the Spirit,” a former church member testified Tuesday.
“People were falling all over … they were just going down,” said Diane Slocum, who later saw an injured Judith Dadd being tended to in the women’s bathroom.
Dadd is suing Delta Township’s Mount Hope Church and its pastor, David R. Williams, for her injuries and also for defamation, stemming from a letter and other statements she says the pastor made.
Dadd, who is seeking unspecified damages in excess of $25,000, claims she went to the altar during the July 18, 2002, service and was “overcome by the Spirit of the Lord,” according to the lawsuit. She fell backward and struck her head on the floor.
Trained ushers at the 4,000-member church should have been there to catch her, as they had in the past, one of Dadd’s attorneys, Richard Rashid, said during opening arguments. But no one called 911 or even applied a Band-Aid that day, according to testimony Tuesday.
Linda Gruizenga, who also was at the altar when Dadd fell, testified that Dadd hit the floor hard.