Court dismisses defamation lawsuit of Pastor Micahn Carter against woman who accused him of rape

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, January 07, 2026

The Court of Appeals in Washington state has dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by former megachurch pastor Micahn Carter against his former assistant, who alleges he raped her in her office at Together Church in Yakima in 2019.

In a ruling dated Dec. 30, 2025, Court of Appeals Judge George B. Fearing, joined by Judges John Cooney and Megan Murphy, dismissed Carter’s lawsuit, citing the state's Uniform Public Expression Protection Act.

The UPEPA is an "anti-SLAPP" (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law, enacted in 2021,  to protect individuals and groups from frivolous lawsuits intended to silence their free speech, press, assembly, or petitioning on matters of public interest. It also provides mandatory attorney fees for successful defendants.

“We dismiss Micahn Carter’s defamation cause of action as a matter of law. In doing so, we grant [redacted’s] motion to dismiss, under the UPEPA, Carter’s complaint,” Fearing wrote. “We award Jones reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred at both the superior court and the Court of Appeals levels.”

Theo Lesczynski, an attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle, who represented and argued at the appellate court on behalf of Carter’s former assistant, called the decision of the court “groundbreaking” and a boon for survivors.

“Our client stood up for her right to be heard and fought back against this vindictive lawsuit. As a result of her courage, we have received a groundbreaking decision that will protect survivors everywhere,” Lesczynski said in a statement to The Christian Post. “The opinion advances the law of defamation to ensure that survivors can speak freely about their experiences and bring public attention to these extraordinarily important issues.”

Carter and his wife previously led Together Church in Yakima, Washington, for 13 years until he resigned in June 2019 following what was described as an “inappropriate incident.” Carter has since described the incident as "consensual sex," but the woman claimed the sexual encounter was "not consensual."

According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, Carter blamed the incident on previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder, for which he later sought treatment.

He later went to the Church of the Highlands in Alabama to participate in a “ministerial restoration” program in July 2020. During his time there, the woman sent a letter to Church of the Highlands Pastor Chris Hodges, accusing Carter of raping her. She also published her allegations in a blog post on Medium titled “Moving Forward.” Carter resigned from Church of the Highlands due to the allegations.

In the post, the woman alleged that Carter “raped me in my office while most of our staff, teams and my family stood just outside the door” on April 29, 2019.

"We were talking about what glasses I was going to buy for pete’s sake. What was happening didn’t make sense to me and my 'please stop' whispers didn’t throw him off in the slightest," she added. 

“This nonconsensual and horribly traumatic event left me unable to function,” the young woman, who describes herself as a single mother, claimed. “I remember feeling so disoriented and like my skin was crawling.”

She said she was too afraid to report the alleged rape to police or church officials or even go to a hospital.

Carter has maintained that the sexual encounter was consensual and sued the woman in Alabama for at least $500,000 in damages. That lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice because the alleged assault happened in Washington.

Carter later sued the woman in Washington in 2023. The woman sought to have the case dismissed, but Yakima County Superior Court Judge Kevin Naugh denied that request in February 2024. Carter has continued to preach at churches around the country, and he and his wife recently announced plans to launch a new church in Indianapolis, Indiana, this fall.

In their decision to dismiss Carter’s lawsuit, the judges found that the woman’s letter to the Church of the Highlands pastor, warning him about her experience with Carter, is protected by the “common interest privilege.”

“Any church would want to know whether a married pastor engaged in sexual intercourse with his assistant on church property,” the judges note.

The court also explained that the extensive context and background provided by Carter’s former assistant in her blog post made “the allegation of rape in the post … nonactionable opinion,” which means it could not be the subject of a defamation claim. Carter was also qualified as a “limited public figure,” which requires him to prove that his former assistant made her statements with actual malice. The judges concluded she did not.

In their decision, the judges also wrote that victims of workplace sexual harassment “sometimes first blame themselves” but may eventually come to “understand the difference in power” and lack of consent in an employer-employee relationship.

“We acknowledge a lack of direct evidence of consent by [redacted] to the sexual encounter. We underscore Carter’s role as a minister and his announcement in church of engaging in wrong behavior because of a mental illness. We observe that Carter brings this suit in part to restore his public standing as an important internet evangelist and book author. We stress the employment and pastoral relationship between Carter and [redacted],” the judges stated. “Finally, we note a long history of predatory sexual behavior toward women in the workplace and the abuse of trust when a pastor pursues sex with a parishioner.”

During a recent sermon at Revere Church in Placentia, California, Carter framed the sexual encounter as “infidelity.”

“In 2019, I made the biggest mistake of my life. Through infidelity, I was unfaithful to my wife. I lost an amazing church that I built an amazing group of people that I got to pastor,” he said. “I lost the city I was born and raised in. We lost the house we were building. I lost my reputation. I lost trust. I lost longtime friends.”