Addendum
To the Open Letter to Peter Kershaw
During Memorial Day weekend, Peter Kershaw telephoned and said that this Open Letter to him was harming his ministry, and he asked if the letter could be taken down or modified. He inquired about what happened between the four trustees of the Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community, the entity for which he was contracted on April 7, 2004 to write a sacred purpose trust indenture, and he expressed regret about what happened …
I have to pause here: what Norman Edwards did when he filed a revised purchasing agreement on September 17, 2004, for the same property as was purchased by the four men (Terry Williams, Philip Frankford, Paul Drieman, and Norman Edwards) on April 28, 2004, probably rises to the high bar of criminal fraud. It certainly far exceeds defrauding three brothers-in-Christ by omission or by any form of accidental or innocent mistake. And to do what Edwards did required the assistance of two individuals, Warwick Potts and Peter Kershaw.
Edwards had carried an advertisement for Peter Kershaw’s books in his Servants’ News publications for some years before Edwards came together with Williams, Frankford, and Drieman to contract with Peter Kershaw to write a trust indenture for the four of them. On April 13, 2004, Edwards reported to the other three men that Kershaw should have the indenture to them in seven days, or on or about April 20, 2004, a full week before the four of them, operating as the “Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community, a sacred purpose trust,” was to close on two parcels of real property previously purchased by first Arthur Hawkins, then by Eternal Life Bible Institute (ELBI), a 501(c)(3) corporation, of which Arthur Hawkins was president [his wife Cindy Hawkins is now president, vice-president, and secretary of ELBI]. The property was being purchased via a Purchasing Agreement recorded in Huron County in Liber 1048 (pgs 223, 224, 225 & 226) that would have the four men paying off ELBI’s indebtedness to the 754th Corp and to Lori and Gary Babcock, then paying ELBI $420,000 for its alleged improvements to the property.
The four men had agreed that they should not close on the property until a trust indenture was signed and recorded.
The Purchasing Agreement dated April 28, 2004, and
recorded in Liber 1048 (223–226) asserted that such a trust indenture
existed and that the four men were in fact trustees for the purchasing entity,
“Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community, a sacred purpose trust.”
If no such trust indenture existed, then Mr. Norman Scott Edwards caused a
fraudulent document to be filed with
· Either a trust indenture for the “Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community, a sacred purpose trust,” existed on April 28, 2004, with the four men—Terry Williams, Philip Frankford, Paul Drieman, and Norman Edwards—as the named trustees, a trust indenture for which these four men contracted with Peter Kershaw to write, or
· Norman Edwards caused a fraudulent document to be filed on April 28, 2004. There is no other alternative.
Indeed, an unrecorded trust indenture was written by Norman Scott Edwards and signed by the four men. This indenture is dated April 5, 2004, but was actually written after April 28th and written because Peter Kershaw apparently had not been able to get to the four men the trust indenture for which he had been contracted to deliver. This indenture—again, signed by all four men—gave to the men joint authority to purchase property and to pay bills, and it is under this indenture that the four men operated as trustees of the Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community while waiting for Peter Kershaw to deliver the contracted trust indenture.
On June 7, 2004, Edwards reported to the other three men that he had received the trust indenture from Peter Kershaw, and that he had gone over about a fourth of it and had numerous questions about it. This document was never shown to the other three men.
On September 12, 2004, Edwards gave to Terry Williams a copy of a trust indenture written by Peter Kershaw that had provisions for only three trustees whereas the contracted document was to provide for four trustees … this trust indenture, written by Peter Kershaw, was examined by Jim and Marcus Lee of Tax Professionals, of Knoxville, Tennessee, and was declared by the Lees to be the best (or among the best) trust indenture they had examined. They were very favorably impressed by the quality of Peter Kershaw’s work.
But unbeknownst to Williams, Frankford, and Drieman, some time in August 2004, Edwards had contacted Peter Kershaw and requested that he draft a trust indenture for which only one trustee was needed. Peter Kershaw responded to Edwards’ request via telephone on August 20, 2004, about 5:00 pm, and in a conversation overheard by both the secretary for the four men—and by myself—she took the call and told Peter Kershaw about how eagerly the four men were looking forward to receiving the long delayed trust indenture. Three times during this conversation Edwards asked for confirmation that the indenture could be filed with only one signature, and on all three occasions he was assured that was the case.
Thus, at approximately 6:00 pm, this Friday
evening, August 20, 2004, I sought out Paul Drieman, the director (unanimously
elected leader of the four trustees, and actually anointed with oil by Norman
Edwards to this position), and told him that I did not like what I had
overheard, that from what I overheard Edwards intended to file a trust indenture
in his name sole. Drieman refused to believe that Edwards would do such a
thing, and he did not report this conversation to the other three men. However,
on September 4, 2004, I mentioned to Philip Frankford that I had spoken to
Drieman about the possibility of a trust indenture being filed with a single
signature: Frankford said such a thing could not be done because of the
existing Purchase Agreement and Establishing
Agreement. But Frankford
was concerned enough that he directed the four men’s secretary to
register with
On September 7, 2004, the secretary for the four men registered the assumed name: the four men were to sign the signature card so that they would also be joint owners of the assumed name. But none of them went with the secretary to the courthouse within the allotted time, so the secretary became the sole owner of the assumed name and continues as both the unpaid secretary for the Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community and as the webmaster for the Port Austin Sabbatarian Community website.
On September 16, 2004, Peter Kershaw had notarized
in
If Peter Kershaw did not realize that the “Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community Sacred Purpose Trust,” a sacred purpose trust, was a bogus entity, he should have.
Peter Kershaw is an intelligent individual, and presumably a moral individual, someone who exercises his Christianity in a way that would not have him be party to any fraudulent court filings. Yet for him to be contracted to write a trust indenture for the “Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community,” a trust indenture that would be signed by four trustees, and then for him to actually write a second or a third indenture for a seemingly bogus entity named the “Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community Sacred Purpose Trust,” with one trustee would indicate a serious lapse in judgment … what was Peter Kershaw thinking?
On September 17, 2004, Norman Scott Edwards filed
with
Without having in his possession the trust indenture written by Peter Kershaw and notarized on September 16th, Edwards would have been unable to convince Warwick Potts to sign, on behalf of ELBI, a revised Purchasing Agreement which he filed with Huron County’s Recorder of Deeds immediately after recording the trust indenture … the revised Purchasing Agreement names the “Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community Sacred Purpose Trust,” a sacred purpose trust, as the purchaser of ELBI’s assets in Huron County.
With the recording of the trust indenture Peter Kershaw wrote and had notarized on September 16, 2004, Norman Scott Edwards removed as trustees and removed from any ownership position in the real property the three men, Williams, Frankford, Drieman, each of whom had invested time, labor, and money, with Williams advancing almost all of the money until this time. Without that short six-page trust indenture, every much unlike the 53 page indenture that Drieman had the Lees examine, Edwards could not have removed without fore-notice and without any form of compensation and without any signing over their ownership position his three co-trustees of the Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community.
Edwards did on September 17, 2004, exactly what he had conspired with Peter Kershaw on August 20, 2004, to do.
Now the question is, did Peter Kershaw know what Edwards intended: yes, he knew that Edwards intended to file a trust indenture with only himself as trustee. Did Peter Kershaw know that Edwards intended to eliminate the other three men without notifying or compensating them? This will never be known if what Peter Kershaw said was true in a telephone conversation in January 2005, when both Paul Drieman and I spoke to him about this matter: he said he had then already destroyed his records of the transaction with the Port Austin Sabbatarian Church Community.
Why destroy those records so soon?
Peter Kershaw’s ministry is being harmed because of his interaction with Norman Scott Edwards … that I cannot help. I can only report what I know.
Edwards has been marked by the Port Austin Sabbatarian Community as a person who is to be avoided: he is unrepentant and a self-identified Christian brother who has defrauded Williams, Frankford, and Drieman, stealing from these three men hope and a considerable amount of time, labor, and money.
I have been slow to post this addendum to my Open Letter for I do not believe it will help Peter Kershaw’s ministry. However, this past weekend Peter Kershaw via e-mail reminded me that I had promised to post this addendum and that I hadn’t. He is correct. I did not faithfully post this accounting of what happened, but I now shall.
It is probable that this addendum will further harm Kershaw’s ministry, and for that I wish he had left the matter as it was.
Edwards has harmed nearly everyone with whom he has been involved. Peter Kershaw is no exception. But he will have to work through the damage Edwards has done to him as everyone involved with the Port Austin Sabbatarian Community has had to overcome the harm caused by Edwards. Peter Kershaw should have known better than to write a trust indenture for one trustee for an entity that had a name so similar to the entity for which he had been contracted to write an indenture for four trustees. He should have questioned what was going on. He should have exercised greater wisdom, but then, Drieman wouldn’t believe that Edwards was capable of doing what he did do. Nor would Williams have believed. So perhaps Peter Kershaw was also deceived by Edwards.
Unless Peter Kershaw does what he promised to do in that telephone conversation of January 2005—i.e., deal with Edwards himself—this matter will remain as it is, a blotch that Kershaw will continue to have to explain. If, however, Kershaw actually engages Edwards, then I will applaud Kershaw and so report it in a new Open Letter.
Homer Kizer
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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."