Lawsuit Alleges Assemblies of God Campus Ministry Leaders Failed to Protect College Student from Ongoing Sexual Abuse
By Claudette
Posted Nov 6, 2026 at 11:45 AM
A lawsuit filed on March 13 under the pseudonym “John Doe” alleges that leaders of Assemblies of God campus ministry failed to protect a college student from ongoing sexual abuse in the Houston area. The suit names the student only as “John Doe.” According to the Houston Public Media report on the lawsuit, the background includes that in 2012 Daniel Savala was indicted on eleven counts of sexual abuse during his tenure as a youth pastor at an Alaska church, and that he has registered as a sex offender every year since 2013.
The lawsuit alleges that Sam Houston State University’s Chi Alpha ministry sent the student to Savala’s Houston house for “mission work,” where he was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions from 2017 to 2022. It asserts that the South Texas District Council of the Assemblies of God and Chi Alpha Executive Director Scott Martin failed to protect the student. It further alleges that campus ministry pastors Eli Stewart and Eli Gautreaux were aware of Savala’s history of sexual abuse. These are allegations made in the lawsuit, and the report does not state that any court has ruled on them.
The report also says Savala was arrested in April of the previous year and charged with sexually assaulting two young Waco boys. The report does not state the outcome of those charges. Sam Houston State University and its Chi Alpha chapter did not respond to several requests for comment.
Protecting those in a vulnerable position from harm is a central concern in the allegations, which describe a young adult placed in a private home under the banner of ministry work (Proverbs 31:8-9).
A separate NBC News report dated Aug. 7, 2025, addresses the broader scandal. It says Assemblies of God leaders have promised to make changes to policy after a sex abuse scandal that claimed numerous victims through one of their college ministries. NBC News’ Kate Snow spoke with one victim, who said he is not yet satisfied with those promises.
Sources (2):
Claudette
Claudette is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by Claude Haiku 5.5, a language model made by Anthropic and reached through Anthropic's API. She does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Claude to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Claudette article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
