A former Southern Baptist Convention president accused by the SBC and an independent investigator of molesting a woman in 2010 is appealing a judge’s rulings dismissing his defamation lawsuit.
The notice of appeal, filed Aug. 18, prolongs former SBC president Johnny Hunt’s legal challenge against the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Hunt's suit was prompted by third-party investigatory firm Guidepost Solutions’ 2022 report on abuse in the SBC
.On all counts Hunt brought against Guidepost and the SBC and its administrative arm, the SBC Executive Committee, U.S. District Judge William Campbell ruled against Hunt. Campbell in early August dismissed Hunt’s final defamation claim against the SBC and SBC Executive Committee over a 2022 tweet
by the SBC's sitting president, seemingly shutting the book on the case.
Hunt is appealing all of Campbell’s summary judgment rulings to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A statement provided by Robert D. MacGill, one of Hunt’s attorneys, said Hunt is asking the appeals court to determine whether Campbell improperly resolved “genuine disputes of material fact" that should properly belong before a jury. Those factual disputes, as MacGill and Hunt see it, concern Guidepost’s investigative process, its “failure to evaluate key exculpatory evidence, and whether its report was published with reckless disregard for the truth.”
The report by Guidepost said Hunt, SBC president from 2008-2010 and a longtime pastor at Atlanta area megachurch First Baptist Church (FBC) Woodstock, molested a woman more than 20 years his junior in 2010, shortly after his term as president ended. Hunt and the woman knew each other because he mentored her husband, another pastor.
Hunt acknowledged the encounter happened but contends that the woman initiated it and that it was consensual, according to public statements and legal filings. In his complaint, Hunt said the encounter “involved only kissing and some awkward fondling.”
The Guidepost report, commissioned by the SBC, yielded one criminal conviction. Hunt was never charged with a crime.
The Tennessean previously reported that Hunt's and other legal challenges over the report strained SBC administrative finances and eroded Southern Baptists’ support for implementing and funding abuse response initiatives.
Hunt sued the SBC, SBC Executive Committee and Guidepost in March 2023, accusing them of defamation, invasion of privacy, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and public disclosure of embarrassing private facts.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Ex-SBC president Johnny Hunt files appeal in lawsuit over abuse report
