Miami police interrupts church service looking for kids

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, January 06, 2025

Pastor E.J. Newton of 433 Church in Miami, Florida, says he was questioned and his congregants searched after officers from the Miami Police Division pressured an abrupt finish to his sermon over a toddler custody dispute between him and his ex-wife Marissa Pardun.

A recording of the incident captured in the course of the church’s YouTube Reside broadcast of the service exhibits Newton, 34, ending his sermon in slightly below 12 minutes and advising his shocked congregants to hope as he left his pulpit to speak with officers.

The Miami Police Division didn’t instantly present their account of what occurred subsequent when contacted by The Christian Submit on Monday.

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Newton alleged in a assertion on Instagram that he was “secluded” from his church members as a result of a decide “granted an emergency extraction” of his kids. Courtroom paperwork reviewed by CP present he was not forewarned concerning the extraction as a result of there was concern he would flee together with his kids.

“I’ve been secluded by the police, not allowed to depart,” Newton wrote in a submit that included a video of law enforcement officials on church property. “Now, they’re looking members’ vehicles and stopping them from leaving church grounds.”

Final Friday, Circuit Courtroom Choose Samantha Ruiz Cohen granted an ex parte emergency movement for the return of Newton’s three minor kids filed by Pardun as a result of Newton violated a custody settlement and allegedly threatened to take them to his native Nigeria.

“The Petitioner is in concern that the Respondent is making preparations to flee the USA to Nigeria which is Respondent’s nation of origin. The Respondent has threatened to take the youngsters in a foreign country and the Respondent is in possession of the three kids’s passports. The Respondent has refused to permit the Petitioner to see the youngsters and continues to hide the minor kids and their whereabouts,” the movement mentioned.

“The Petitioner has made a number of makes an attempt to have the Respondent served with the pleadings. Because of the Respondent’s conduct with regard to the minor kids, it’s affordable to imagine that superior discover of this movement and listening to date would trigger Respondent to flee and conceal the whereabouts of the minor kids.”

On-line media character Larry Reid, who first highlighted the police intervention at Newton’s church on his “Larry Reid Reside” Fb web page on Sunday, raised concern about how the dispute between Newton and his ex-wife has affected their kids.

“I can’t think about how he (Newton) felt and what he thought in that second. The children are the primary victims right here in my view. The entire church is locked down with weapons drawn till the children are returned together with their passports,” Reid wrote.

In his Instagram assertion, Newton alleged that rivals who he solely referenced as “THEY,” had weaponized his ex-wife to make false allegations towards him as a result of he wouldn’t cease “talking reality and exposing darkness.”

“The second I stepped off stage, our on-line service was flooded with false accusations. THEY — the identical individuals who recruited my ex-wife — at the moment are working collectively. They’ve my ex-wife claiming that I’m attempting to flee the nation in the course of a parenting schedule case. A decide granted an emergency extraction,” he defined. “That they had folks come additionally into the service which we noticed. This entire factor has been so bizarre.”

The Miami pastor, who couldn’t be reached for extra remark, insisted that he had no plans to cease his ministry as a result of “God will prevail.”

“I can’t cease talking reality and exposing darkness. If that is the price of repentance and talking up towards occultism and witchcraft within the church, then use me, Lord. Purify me. Strengthen me. Make me extra like You,” he shared with a crying emoji. “I like my kids, and this breaks my coronary heart. My infants don’t deserve this. I’m an ideal father. A terrific husband.”

Because the pick-up of the youngsters was ordered, he and his ex-wife are anticipated to seem in courtroom for an evidentiary listening to on Jan. 13.