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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 should 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 * * * * * [ Port Austin Odyssey ] [ Home ] |