Bodycam shows Pastor Tony Spell using slur, threatening man two days after arrest
By: -----
East Baton Rouge, LA - Less than two days after being arrested for the widely publicized beating of a 20-year-old man, the Rev. Tony Spell was captured on a law enforcement bodycam calling the alleged victim a slur and threatening the young man’s father.
In East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office bodycam footage taken by deputies between 4:40 and 5 a.m. on June 23, Spell used an anti-gay slur to refer to the man he also said he “beat the crap” out of.
“He’s just sore because I beat the crap out of his f****t boy,” Spell says.
“And he’s next if he comes over here and harasses these boys” he says, referring to some teenagers alongside him.
Deputies were dispatched to the area near the pastor’s church in Central that morning after his neighbor, Scott Sherwin, called and complained that Spell was across the street from his house mowing the church lawn around 4 a.m.
Sherwin, whose son was attacked by Spell last week, has had an ongoing feud with the pastor since 2020,
In the bodycam video, Sherwin tells deputies it is his understanding that a judge put a protective order in place after Spell’s arrest and the pastor should be keeping his distance from his home.
“He's doing this to intimidate my victim son,” Sherwin says to deputies. “Do you cut your grass at 4 in the morning?”
Sherwin can be seen on the video raising his middle finger in the direction of Spell across the street.
When deputies approached Spell after speaking with his neighbor, they asked the pastor to identify himself.
“Everybody in the world knows my name,” Spell replied.
In his conversation with deputies, Spell can be heard calling his neighbor’s son a slur twice and comments on Sherwin’s sexual orientation.
“He needs to get back to sleep with his boyfriend,” Spell says to the teens with him in front of the church.
Two days earlier, Spell crossed the street and beat up Sherwin’s son after the 20-year-old yelled “f — k you” to the pastor, according to an arrest warrant and videos of the incident. Video shows the young man throwing the first punch at Spell after the pastor charges across the street toward him.
Spell punched the man eight times before tackling him to the ground, then hit him another 27 times. The majority of the 35 punches were to the head and chest.
The victim required five stitches, according to his father, and suffered two large black eyes.
After Spell was booked into jail with second-degree battery and released, he held a press conference and claimed the person he beat up threatened to rape and kill his family.
Spell also called out the Central Police Department for not addressing his family’s concerns. But Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran said his office has received five calls in four years from Spell’s family and only one involved the neighbors across the street from Life Tabernacle Church.
Spell made national headlines in 2020 when he refused to stop holding in-person church services during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was charged with six misdemeanors, but the case was later thrown out by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
He was also arrested the same year for allegedly almost hitting a protestor with a bus. Those charges were later dropped.