Ex-Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward seeks $10M for damage caused by censureship over prayer event

Former Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward is seeking $10 million from the city for the “irreparable harm” she claims to have suffered since city leaders formally denounced her for attending a 2023 worship event hosted by conservative activist missionary Sean Feucht and receiving prayer from former state legislator-turned-pastor Matt Shea.

Woodward, who lost her re-election bid that year and now works as a real estate agent, previously filed a tort claim against the city in 2024 seeking $1.4 million, according to The Spokesman-Review. Her new attorney, Mary Schultz, filed an amended claim earlier this month seeking $10 million. The claim against the city alleges that the resolution denouncing Woodward was a violation of her First Amendment rights.

Shea is the senior pastor of On Fire Ministries & Kingdom Christian Academy. He was kicked out of the state Republican caucus after an independent investigation found him guilty of domestic terrorism because of his involvement with the armed takeover at Oregon’s Malheur Wildlife Refuge in 2016, The Washington Post reported. 

On Aug. 20, 2023, Woodward attended the “Let Us Worship” event in Spokane and received prayer from Shea about a minute after he declared that there is one answer in response to same-sex marriage and trans indoctrination, “and His name is Jesus Christ,” according to Range Media.

Schultz stated in Woodward’s claim that the 2023 resolution “was intended as, and was, unlawful government punishment … because of her attendance and speech at a public forum.” She stated that the resolution “remains in effect, and injury is ongoing.”

The tort claim, which is a required legal step before a lawsuit can be filed against a government entity, names the city of Spokane and City Council members Betsy Wilkerson, Lori Kinnear, Karen Stratton, and Zack Zappone, according to The Spokesman-Review.

“The legislative assault arose solely from Woodward’s having attended a disfavored public prayer/political event, and being ‘embraced’ by one of its leaders,” Schultz wrote in the claim. “No constitutional provision, nor law, nor state nor federal precedent, nor history of presidential or elected official censure, supports the use of legislative powers to compel orthodoxy in speech and association.”

Several Christian residents in Spokane had opposed the Spokane City Council’s plan to censure Woodward for receiving prayer from Shea.

Lyle Dach, a businessman and a non-voting deacon of Spokane Valley Assembly Church, who opposed the plan to censure Woodward, told the city council in 2023 that he saw no hate at the prayer event, as was claimed by critics and Woodward’s political rival in the mayoral campaign, Lisa Brown, who is now the current mayor.

“I’m going to ask you where the hate is because being at the concert, this is what I saw. And I want to kind of bring this to the public awareness here. I saw people ready to pray. I heard people crying out. I saw people who wanted answers for the many concerns they have today,” Dach added in a recording of the meeting shared on YouTube.

“I heard a pastor who the media hates call to action every believer to get past their political indifference and pray for our leaders, like believers are called to do. I then heard the same pastor corporately pray for the fire victims and a mayor and other leaders on stage.”

Woodward publicly denounced Shea shortly after the event. She said she was not aware he was going to be at the event and thought it was a prayer event for the victims of the Oregon Road and Gray fires.

Shea later stated on Twitter, now known as X, that Woodward should have known the event wasn’t for fire victims.

“This is an annual event planned months ago to worship Jesus,” Shea wrote at the time. “It wasn’t for ‘fire victims.’ She was invited, and she accepted BEFORE the fires started.”