Fourth Church Leader Arrested as Lawsuits Mount Over Sex Offender Access
Five civil lawsuits accuse Pawleys Island Community Church leaders of concealing a registered sex offender's access to children.
Authorities have made additional arrests, and civil lawsuits have been filed, related to allegations that leadership at a South Carolina church concealed that a registered sex offender was volunteering in a custodial role and interacting with children.
PICC photo via Facebook / Insert of Michael Fields (courtesy of Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office)
Michael Anthony Fields, director of operations and missions at Pawleys Island Community Church, was arrested late last week in the ongoing investigation into the access registered sex offender Warren Perry had to children at the church and its affiliated school.
Fields was charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk, according to WBTW.
The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office said Fields was “responsible for the security of the entire campus and the safety of the students of the Pawleys Island Christian Academy.”
Fields is the fifth person arrested since concerns about Perry’s presence at the church first surfaced. Charges — including obstruction of justice and placing a child at risk — have also been filed against former pastor Don Williams; his wife, Ginny; school director Nikki Howard; and Perry.
Amid the arrests, several civil lawsuits have also been filed against the church.
The fifth and most recent lawsuit, filed July 28 by the parents of a minor child, names the church, the school, the Williamses, Howard, Perry, 10 elders and the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services as defendants, according to the Christian Post.
“Because of their minor child’s youth and vulnerability, and because of Defendants’ concealment and continued placement of Perry among children,” the lawsuit states, according to the Christian Post, “plaintiffs may never be able to determine the full extent of what their minor child saw, experienced or may have been subjected to during the period of Perry’s access.”
The lawsuit seeks actual and punitive damages, including tuition reimbursement, medical expenses and attorney’s fees.
The first lawsuit against Pawleys Island Community Church and its leaders was filed July 17 by two unnamed parents seeking $25 million. It seeks class-action status to include other families, the Post and Courier reported.
That lawsuit alleges church leaders negligently allowed Perry to work on campus without informing parents, preventing them from making informed decisions about their children’s safety.
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“Plaintiffs would show that they have paid money to have their children attend the school and/or made significant contributions to the church and that all of these payments and contributions constitute damages to the class members,” the lawsuit alleges. “Furthermore, all class members would show that there were numerous touchings of children by the sex offender, the extent of which in many cases will never be known because of the age of the children and the lack of supervision by the Defendants.”
Two more lawsuits were filed July 21. One, brought by a parent identified as Jane Doe, claims her 5-year-old son was sexually assaulted by a white-haired man at the school. The boy said the man played a “game” with him and went on to describe the behavior in detail, according to ChurchLeaders.
Jane Doe said she told Howard about the abuse and pulled her son out of the school. According to the lawsuit, Howard responded that “nothing like that had ever happened at the school before” and questioned whether the boy was making it up.
The plaintiff is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the harm her son suffered.
The other lawsuit filed July 21 was brought by the parent of a young child who attended the school from September 2025 until July 2026 and was allegedly exposed to a registered sex offender throughout that time.
The lawsuit claims the exposure caused the child psychological and developmental harm and inflicted severe emotional distress. The plaintiff is seeking compensatory and punitive damages on several claims, including gross negligence, breach of contract and good faith, and institutional negligence.
In an email reportedly signed by the “elders and church staff,” the church apologized for what it said “must have felt like a delay in communication.”
“A group of elders, Kyn Gdanian, Brent McClellan, and Tom Powell, with the support and counsel of some senior elders, are working with the church staff to begin the process of moving forward,” the email read. “We want to assure you that our church staff continues to faithfully serve and carry out the day-to-day work of the church.”
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