October 1, 2024 • 39 mins
What happened after two of Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila’s ‘brothers’ were arrested? Kalyn ties up the loose ends in this final episode. She also tries to answer some of the unanswerable questions about Straitway Truth Ministry. Plus, she finds out how Eileen Noyes (formerly Gbaja-Biamila) and Christiana Cooke (formerly Clemmings) are doing today.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm calling court case nineteen CM fifteen seventy State of
Wisconsin versus Ryan Robert Desmith. He is appearing in person
without counsel.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We're in green Bay, Wisconsin. It's January twenty twenty and
Kabir Baja Biamila's quote unquote brothers from Straightway Truth Ministry
are in court. They were arrested after they showed up
armed to a Christmas pageant at Kabir's children's school.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Were twenty two year old Ryan Desmouth and twenty four
year old Jordan Salmi are appearing on gun possession charges.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Their behavior in court is so out of the ordinary
it lands them on A and E's court camp.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Three weeks earlier, the man attended a church Christmas pageant
armed with loaded semi automatic pistols. Deastmouth and Salmi are
members of what's called the Hebrew Israelite community. Along with
former Green Bay packer Cabir Baja Biamilla known as KGB.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Kabir is in court too.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
He's not charged with anything, even though he sent the
men to surveil the pageant. Today he's just an observer
seated behind a glass partition watching d Smith and sell
me Buck against the justice system.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Do you hear my notice?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Their notice, Sir d Smith is called before the Court Commissioner.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
First, A stand on my notice?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Did you receive a copy of the criminal complaint?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
A stand on my notice served a little lot easier
if you just use it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
He's a wiry white guy with a very short buzz cut.
He wears glasses and a black shirt with gold fringe
along the bottom edge. Before this hearing, Desmouth and Selmy
filed a bunch of demands within the court, all handwritten,
all attempting to bolster their claim that US laws don't
apply to them and that they are quote unquote idiots.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Before the court, do you plan on hiring an attorney?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I don't understand what you're saying.
Speaker 7 (01:58):
I don't speak your language.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Speak man and man. Okay, I'm going to enter not fuilty.
Please on your behalf.
Speaker 8 (02:06):
If you insure plea on my behalf, you will be
helpfully liable.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
D Smith's defiant attitude and strange language are similar to
the courtroom strategies that other sovereign citizens use.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
This is nineteen CM fifteen seventy one, State of Wisconsin
versus Jordan Thomas Sumi.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
I'm not certain have a seat.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
When Jordan's saw me is called, he is also confrontational.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Got it be known this day?
Speaker 9 (02:31):
See for i'man Jordan saw me and in a state
of man now passing forward.
Speaker 10 (02:36):
Take him.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
I'm asking in its worded?
Speaker 10 (02:41):
Please? Is that an word?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
As he leaves, de Smith fistbumps Cabir, who is watching
this all go down.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
When Kabir exits the courtroom, he speaks to the press
who are covering the trial.
Speaker 11 (02:53):
They are not able to touch us right now and
they don't know how to.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Deal with this right now.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
After the hearing, in his first TV interviews since the arrest,
KGB tells us he's pleased with the results of court.
Speaker 11 (03:04):
That's a good thing for us because just like we said,
we didn't accept service, we're not accepting to be handled
like slaves.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
We do have rights and they recognize that.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Kabir still believes the men should have never been arrested
in the first place.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
They just got associated because of my situation.
Speaker 11 (03:18):
That had nothing to do with because that was just
a b that was a by product of just being
related to.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
It was a personal player.
Speaker 11 (03:25):
Oh it does not think I believe it was very
much so.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Open personal thing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Selmi and d Smith were ultimately sentenced to one year
of probation for a charge of carrying a concealed weapon,
and both men had to write letters of apology to
the responding police officers and to the Providence Academy head
Master Ron Young. Kabir hadn't been carrying a weapon that
day and wasn't charged in connection to this case, but
through his divorce proceedings, Kabir has had similar attention with
(04:04):
the courts due to his sovereign citizen beliefs. KGB's divorce
was finalized in twenty eighteen, but in twenty twenty he
had to go back to court to sign some additional documents.
Like a lot of sovereign citizens, he represented himself. One
article says he argued that his religious beliefs were above
civil law. Kabir refused to sign the documents, so the
judge sentenced him to six months in county jail for contempt.
(04:27):
As he later told his followers on YouTube.
Speaker 12 (04:30):
I was in there defending my constitutional right. You can't
even find attorneys to help you on your constitutional rights.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The Brown County sheriff deputies tried unsuccessfully to get Kabir
to comply with the arrest order, and when he didn't,
they tased and handcuffed him.
Speaker 11 (04:47):
They tasered me in the back.
Speaker 12 (04:48):
I got hit from behind and I looked like I
hit my head, so I got some swollen in my
face and in my neck.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
How did it feel to watch him get in court?
Speaker 7 (05:01):
I cried because he was crying.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Eileen, Kabir's ex, was in court that day, and she
watched all this go down, her husband of sixteen years
and the father of their eight children, seemed so helpless.
Just a few years ago, Kabir was thriving in NFL retirement,
and now he was getting arrested and stunned in court.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
I had compassion, like this man who has changed right
in front of my eyes, who has always had this
childlike attitude and this love after the change and all
this like tough facade, and he's still a little boy
who doesn't know how to deal with things, and he's
crying out. It was really sad. I just I felt
(05:44):
bad for him. Felt bad.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Kabir eventually agreed to sign the document, so the contempt
charge was dropped, but the resisting arrest charge stuck and
he was taken to jail. He was bonded out that
same afternoon.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
All right, appradly the Tennessee and that's a major newspaper
in the state of Tennessee, has got when of this
particular situation with brother Kabeer.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's hard to know how Pastor Dowell feels about these
moments when Straightway gets thrust into the limelight, when one
of his most recognizable followers ends up on the nightly news,
when Dowell and his ministry are getting attention that he
can't control.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Now, it's amazing all this surrounds Ryan and Jordan and Caber.
I'm way down in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Publicly, Pastor Dowell supported Kabir through his legal troubles. He
posted a video Pastor Dowell makes news for supporting former
NFL player Kabir Baja Biamila.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Now, all of a sudden, I'm thrust in the middle
of all this, which I don't mind being a part
of my brother, because I'm joined to the hippo with
my brother. It's no big deal.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So Pastor Charles Dowell is not in court, but over
the past few years, through Kabir and other high profile Saints,
Dowell's ideas and influence.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Are seemingly on trial.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I'm Kaalen Kaylor and this is spiraled episode six, Man
to man. In all of this, the almost four years
(07:29):
that I've spent investigating straight Away, I've talked to over
fifty people, including current and former members, their families and friends.
Speaker 9 (07:36):
I want to warn people about it. That's really the
short version of it.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
A lot of them are motivated to talk because they
don't want other people to go through what they did.
Speaker 10 (07:45):
I figured, if I can stop one person from getting
everything taken from them or their lives destroyed, then I
got to do something.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But I've never gotten the chance to speak to Pastor Dowell.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
I believe me. I've tried. Hey, my name's Kaylin Kaylor.
I've called a journalist or he on a podcast series.
So I am recording this phone call I was hung
up on and I emailed.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
They never wrote back. People on our team have tried extensively.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
We got close. We could never get directly.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
To him, but I know he's paying attention because Dowell
likes to talk about my reporting on YouTube.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
Well sports ill straight, I know you're watching, and you
have been watching, so now you've got my attention itself.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Let's see he's attacked my looks in his videos, made
fun of me and my producer, and he said the
only way he would talk to me is a live recording,
essentially a debate.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
And I'll even grant you this. I'll even give you
a live interview. I'll give you a live interview as
long as it's recorded live, so that way you can
twist or wop and distort my words or anything like that.
I liked getting out in front of the opening and
being able to have vigorous dialogue and discussion.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I wouldn't have debated him because that's not my job
as a reporter, but he's right.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
I really wanted to talk to him. I still do.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I want to hear his perspective when presented with the
claims made about him, and I've never gotten the chance to.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
So.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
In the end, we've learned a lot about the ministry's history,
it's preachings, it's appeal, but there are still so many gaps.
That's the thing about Straightway, Whether by Dowell's design or
just a lack of records, there is still so much
we don't know. Trying to figure out their legal status
was difficult. They don't appear to be registered anywhere in Tennessee.
They aren't registered as a for profit or nonprofit corporation
(09:34):
or a charity. Way back, Dowell had registered an LLC
under a different church name, and Ralph Stare had registered
a chapter in Tennessee too, but neither of those exist anymore.
But the current version of Straightway you can't find it anywhere.
They are off the books, and that's not necessarily illegal,
but it raises a lot of questions about how they
are handling things financially, especially with all these donations and
(09:57):
people turning over their life savings, properties and businesses they own.
How are they handling taxes consistent with the beliefs of
people who claim to be sovereign citizens. Straightway members actively
avoid creating government records, no birth certificates, no marriage licenses.
We're not sure if they file taxes. We've got loads
of property records, but they seem to beg more questions
(10:18):
than they answer.
Speaker 13 (10:23):
So they're avoiding all of this. But at the same time.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
I talked about all of this with our producer Buffy.
Speaker 13 (10:28):
If you go on to his YouTube channel and in
his comments he does want people to find him.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
We especially wanted to try and figure out Straightway's finances.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
That's one thing we do know.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
We know there's a lot of ways that Straightway gets
donations and gets money.
Speaker 13 (10:47):
So if you go to YouTube dot com at Pastor
Doowell and it's pretty much on the bottom of every
one of his videos.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Oh wait, okay, I just clicked on one, and if
he scrolled to the bottom, it says join me over
on Patreon, support me on Patreon, gifts offerings of support.
There's a Straightway email and then he says use that
for the PayPal donation. There's a link to his PayPal.
There's a cash app. His cash app user name.
Speaker 13 (11:16):
Is there, and there's two cash app because there's that
cash app Straightway Ministry twenty three. And then if that
one doesn't work, then he's got cash app dollar sign
Pastor Dowel.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So anyone watching Dabbe's videos and we know that's a
very common way for people to find Straightway is seeing multiple.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Ways to give to the ministry.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
There's the mailing address if you wanted to mail a check.
He also has a Patreon account, which is a platform
for creators that allows you to charge people to subscribe
for your content, and on his Patreon there's six different
tiers of membership levels. So they're titled Glory, Faith, Praise, Honor, Shalom,
and Power, and it goes from one dollar a month
(12:01):
up to one hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
I did pay to research it.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
For about a month because I wanted to see what
he was posting there.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I was curious.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Honestly, I didn't really see a big difference between what's
on his YouTube page and what is on his Patreon
at the time of recording. We can see that Dowell
has two hundred and twelve thousand subscribers on his YouTube
and fifteen hundred patrons on Patreon, But we don't know
how much money people are sending in.
Speaker 13 (12:28):
Do we know if those donations go straight to Dowell
or do they go to the church, and who decides
how they spend the money.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
We don't know where the money goes those online donations
ultimate use. That's another mystery. Straightway has also dabbled in MLMs.
At one point, the ministry was selling its own beauty products.
So there are multiple revenue streams, including the money that
members have to give up to Dowell When they move
on to a Straightway property, you know, you pull your
(12:59):
resources everyone brings everything they own to the land. And
you know, we've heard from people that if you work
outside the community. I know that in the Tennessee community,
there's several of them that work at the local Walmart.
So if you do have a job, we've been told
by a couple of people that those people bring their
paychecks to Dowell. You need to ask permission essentially to
(13:21):
buy whatever you need. The money is pooled and Dowell
is essentially controlling who can have it and how much.
And when someone gave me the example of something as
small and inexpensive as a guitar string, even that they
had to ask Dowell for the money to purchase.
Speaker 13 (13:38):
That sounds like it would create some tension and some
real disparities in living conditions and what people lives are
like there.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
According to former members, it does. We spoke to a
woman named Yanique Elliott, who surprised found the group on YouTube.
She and her husband never moved onto the Straightway property,
but they lived in Tennessee and drove over on weekends
for services and to fellowship. Yanique told us how Dowel's
house is different from the rest of the Saints.
Speaker 10 (14:07):
That's where I sort of got my first shock because
I went inside. It was completely nice, air conditioned, and
it was three bedrooms two and a half or just
two bathrooms. The couches were leather. They're definitely weren't pleathar
because they weren't striping or anything. It was a typical
home and it was nice.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Now compare that to how other people lived. Yanik visited
an older woman's home.
Speaker 10 (14:33):
So I went into her home and it was a
metal trailer and she didn't have any eag or fans
going or anything for comfort. It was so hot, just
think of like a suffocating heat. And I'm just like,
oh my goodness, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
But Yanique says the Saints were okay with it.
Speaker 10 (14:54):
We wanted the pastor to have a nice home, and
because they said there were peanu and buckets and so
now he a nice home. But they are comfortable with
the way they are. I was like, this is just weird.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And it's not just money, it's also possessions. Once when
Yannie and her husband Philip visited Straightway, they brought a
military style truck.
Speaker 10 (15:13):
So my husband, you know, being the big hearted person,
he told me not he was just gonna bring the
truck so they can use it, you know, to get
the materials from the store to the community.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
I was like, okay, fine.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
They also brought some gear, including a fifty caliber gun
and Ammo.
Speaker 10 (15:29):
He's like he can drive the people around kind of
like a hay ride and you know gun, so the
guys could shoot it and you know, get that experience.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
So the couple had a good day at Straightway, fellowshipping
and shooting with the other Saints. But then it came
time to leave and Philip went to get his things.
Speaker 10 (15:46):
Then I heard Dow say, oh, brother, phil are you
going to give this?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yanique says they felt pressure to leave the gear they'd brought.
She deferred to her husband, who turned over the gun
and the truck to Dowell, including the title again that
they estimated was worth ten thousand dollars. This was a
revealing moment for Yanik. She couldn't trust this pastor anymore. Eventually,
she and Philip decided Straightway wasn't the group for them,
so Philip went to ask Dowell for his stuff back.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yanik says Dowell told him.
Speaker 10 (16:15):
If I want the stuff back, I need to bring
to police the FBR to CIA if I want it back.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Did you ever get that truck back? No?
Speaker 10 (16:27):
Not not the truck, not the guns, not the ammal, nothing.
He kept it all, keeping it all. This is an
underlying theme in the way Dowell and Straightway operate. We
heard from multiple people that they or their family didn't
get their money back when they left the fellowship.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
It all made us wonder.
Speaker 13 (16:49):
You know, you've got these NFL players coming in, and
we know that Mathis and Kapier made millions in their careers.
Did they have to give up all of their money?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
That was something we know that Kabir's ex wife Aileen
and TJ's now ex wife Christiana were really nervous about
because they obviously still had families, they had their children,
and they wanted to make sure that they weren't going
to lose their money with their husband to this group
that they weren't even joining or being a part of.
And the short answer is no, Kabir didn't have to
(17:24):
give up all of his money. And we know that
because Rufus Caldwell, who was an elder at Straightway, talks
about whether the NFL players had to turn over their money.
Speaker 14 (17:33):
The requirement the same for all of those You want
to be a true disciple and a follower of the
most Hayya. We all required to give off. So these millionaires,
every single one of them that you see as part
of us, they all are willing.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
To give all.
Speaker 14 (17:45):
But here's the thing, passor down. He told Kabir, ain't
never managed that kind of money, even though you want
to give it. So what I say to you is
you keep it and manage it, because you do a
better job of managing it than I will. But was
he willing to turn it over? Absolutely, he don't get
a pass just because he's gotten millions.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Kabir runs his own straightway satellite. That could be part
of why he's not expected to give everything up. When
I spoke to Kabir in twenty twenty, this was a
topic that he was vague about. He said he gives
money to Dowell, but he didn't say how much, and
he wouldn't even tell me how many people were living
on his property in Green Bay. And it's not clear
if the people living there are expected to turn over
(18:26):
their money to Kaber.
Speaker 8 (18:30):
One of the things that I was told that might
be wise for me to do, given that what cults
do like they go after all your.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Means after TJ.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Clemings left his wife Christiana, she was worried about exactly this.
She tried to protect a portion of her financial assets
from TJ and straightway.
Speaker 8 (18:46):
One of my friends was like, I think you should
move some of the money from the account in case
he tries to give everything to them.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
At this point, they still shared a bank account even
though their marriage was in trouble. Christiana felt like it
was a big step to withdraw some of their joint funds,
and she tried to come up with an alternative way
to protect herself financially, like freezing the account or no
large wire transfers without both people signing off.
Speaker 8 (19:09):
There was nothing. There was no way. So I moved literally,
I calculated it down to the dollar, just one third.
I didn't do a half because I thought if I
do a half, to explain to him by reasoning why,
he won't believe me and think I'm trying to divorce him.
I was like, so I'll move a third so he
realizes I am just trying to create a safety net
(19:30):
in case these people convince him to do this.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Christiana transferred a third of their joint money into her
own account about forty five thousand dollars. One night, TJ
called and she was honest about what she'd done.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
He was super angry.
Speaker 8 (19:46):
The next day, I tried calling my fiduciary to figure
out another way, just to try again to see if
there was a way to put the money back without
him giving everything to them. And while I was talking
to Sean, Sean was like, oh all your Oh he's gone.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
It gets all gone. And I was like, where to go.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Just as she'd feared, TJ had moved a lot of
the rest of their money, nearly one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 8 (20:13):
I was like, can you see where the wire went?
And so he looked it up and it went to
his Servants Foundation, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and I was like, nice, lovely,
I used sarcasm to give myself comedic relief in the
tumultuous times of life.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
He moved the money to his Servants Foundation, which is
based in Green Bay, and according to our research affiliated
with Kabir So we're left with a big.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
List of unknowns.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
But what we do know is that life on the
other side of Straightway's Baptismal Creek is tough, and leaving
that community can sometimes be harder than staying. That's after
the break. As we got toward the end of our reporting.
(21:20):
In summer twenty twenty three, Straightway posted yet another video,
this time not starring Pastor Dowell.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
It starts at the black screen.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And white text that reads Straightway twenty five years a man,
a vision, a legacy. Then photos start fading into view
of Straightway's Tennessee property, starting with its creation in nineteen
ninety eight. It's an anniversary video. Straightway's been around for
twenty five years. The photos show brightly colored buildings in
(21:50):
the Saints Building, a dining hall in the Tabernacle, and
services being led with a guitar down by the creek.
The comments on the video are full of praise for
all that Dowell has a common but people who've left
the ministry have a very different take on its legacy.
Most of the people I interviewed were willing to talk
because they're not in Straightway anymore. Leaving was hard to do,
(22:11):
so they gave up a community, a shared faith, and
sometimes a lot of money, and even after leaving, their
time in the ministry still impacts their lives. My source,
who I told you about in episode four, remember I
spoke to her for my original story in twenty twenty.
After she left Straightway Tennessee, she faced a long period
of trying to adapt to the real world. She suffered
(22:33):
really bad anxiety. There were huge gaps in my source's education.
When she was fifteen, she said she was at a
fourth grade level in everything. My source says her sister
struggled with depression right after they left, but is doing
good and in school now. But their mom had a
harder time adjusting to life without the Straightway schedule. She
shut down and locked herself in her room. This frustrated
(22:55):
my source. She wanted her mom to make the most
of their new situation. In episod so for it, you
heard about my sources little sister who was born at
Straightway Because of the ministry's beliefs about government records, she
had no birth certificate, no record of her legal existence,
and my source's mom told me in twenty twenty, several
years after leaving, that she was still struggling to create
(23:16):
one these days, my source is making plans for the future.
She has a job, a house, and a car. She'd
liked to go back to school, but with work and
being a mom, it's hard for her to fit it
all in.
Speaker 9 (23:28):
I'm still to this day hypervigilant. I'm constantly analyzing people
to see what their mood is, how they're going to
treat me.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You know, Michael Burkhou, who we heard from in episode three,
has been living with the impact of the Overcomer and
Straightway for years. It creeps up when he's not expecting it.
Speaker 9 (23:47):
I think there's some like PTSD stuff from it. To
be honest, I have such anxiety and depression that it's
hard for me to function like I have a job,
I have a life, I have a partner, but I'm
still trucking. So there you have it.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Are you surprised Straightway has been around for now, you know,
twenty plus years.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
Yes, I am very surprised. I mean, I guess I
shouldn't be. I am surprised when I go onto YouTube
and I see that his videos have two hundred comments
on them or whatever. That surprises me. That shows me
that he is getting traction in certain circles, and that
is not good. That's gonna ruin a lot of people's lives.
(24:36):
They are definitely a cult. I think that they tick
all the boxes for what one would consider a cult.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
We were careful not to use the word cult when
talking about Straightway in this podcast, because the word can
mean different things to different people. The line between a
cult and a religious movement is a thin one. Dowell
has videos talking about this. One of them is titled
Jesus Christ was a cult leader, and Kabeer posted his
own video asking Packers fans if Packer's fandom is a
(25:04):
cult because he thinks it is.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
So.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
We didn't want to classify this group ourselves without having
personally visited or spent time there, But a lot of
the people we talked to use the word cult to
describe Straightway.
Speaker 9 (25:16):
The way that they use religion to manipulate people and
make them give away their worldly goods and cut them
off from their families. Those are all classic things that
cults do. The whole gathering together and living together in
a commune very very clearly occults.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
And what about Kabir, Robert Daniel, and TJ. Straightway's NFL contingent.
All four are still in Straightway, and they're in deeper
than ever. In fact, they're climbing the rings. When Kabir joined,
he was brother Kabir. Now he's elder Kabir. And since
separating from Aileen. He's remarried within straightway and has several
(25:57):
more children. Remember, in twenty twenty, I did interview Kabir
for my original article. We talked for six hours, during
which Kabir didn't even take a break to use the
bathroom or get some water. He was friendly and energetic
and candid about his new life. He talked about almost everything.
Some of his answers really surprised me, mostly when he
(26:18):
talked about his eight children with Eileen. He called them
his seed and said he can plant more seeds. It
was like he didn't miss them or care about them
as human.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Beings at all. It was really darring to hear.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
When I was reporting on this podcast, Kabir again talked
to me for hours, just not on the record. But
of course he has shared a lot of this journey
on YouTube, posting a video A message to all my
children shortly after his divorce.
Speaker 11 (26:45):
I'm going to do a message, a separate message to
my children.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
It's addressed to all his kids, including his last who
he's never met.
Speaker 11 (26:52):
Baby number eight. I did not give him his name,
so I didn't have not met him yet, but I'll
call him by number eight. I just want. You guys
know I did the very best I could to lead
this family, to lead your mother and your and you children,
and Yah's everlasting way. That was my heart. It's still
my heart today. But unfortunately turn of events, your mom
(27:17):
bid the fruit.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Kabir appears to be at peace with his decision to
fully commit to Straightway and leave his first family behind.
Speaker 11 (27:24):
And y'all told me that he would test me to
see if I truly love him. I believe I passed
the test. That I've shown him that I love him
more than I love my wife, my children, my mother,
my father, my brother, my sister, my friends. I love him.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
It's clear.
Speaker 11 (27:42):
It's clear I fear.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
And when I did my interview with Kabir in July
of twenty twenty, he told me he'd already married again
and he had another son. He says he wants to
have ninety four children, a nod to his Jersey number,
and he knows he needs more than one woman to
achieve that goal. The ex NFL wives, Eileen and Christiana,
they're moving forward with their lives. Christiana Cook formerly Clemmings,
(28:07):
still lives in Minnesota. She is beyond busy raising five kids,
her only window for interviews was over naptime. When her
marriage fell apart, she had to sell the farm and
move back in with her parents. It's been tough, but
Christiana has found a silver lining.
Speaker 8 (28:22):
They have the heritage of growing up with their grandparents
and their uncle. So they missed out on a father.
But I feel like what they got in return is
like a lot better in reality, because I don't think
he just had the amount of love to give that
they would have needed.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And Eileen, she remarried. She and her husband have done
a next level Brady bunch. They've blended her eight kids
with his seven. That's fifteen kids. When we interviewed her,
she was wearing a T shirt with a motto that
sums up her past few years.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Can you read it for us?
Speaker 7 (28:57):
Okay, I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter
than the fire around me.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Since everything, she's left Green Bay and she's written a book,
Sidelined No More, helping pro athlete wives get off the
bench to live out their God given purpose. If they
hadn't played in the NFL, Robert Daniel, Kabir and TJ
might still have found their way to Pastor Dowell's YouTube channel.
Some of them might still have left their first wives
(29:26):
and children behind for a different life. We'll never know,
but conversations with former NFL players reinforce the difficulties of
leaving the league. Going from this highly structured, all encompassing
NFL experience to a sudden end that's often out of
players control. That vanished career can create a void that
the players need to fill with something equally meaningful. One
(29:50):
player told me in the aftermath, these men can be
left in a fragile state with hurt egos, and that
can lead them vulnerable to people who want to take
advantage of them. Some might say that these former players
who joined straightway have spirals, but they might say, for
the first time, they're grounded.
Speaker 8 (30:10):
Now.
Speaker 15 (30:10):
The narrative of man TJ is going crazy. He's lost
his mind, he's joined a cult.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Here's TJ Clemings again from his own YouTube video in
which he addresses people who think he's abandoned his family.
Speaker 15 (30:24):
It's crazy the moment you start actually trying to say,
you know what, let me do, let me try, let
me loosely try with the smallest thing. Let me try
to actually start doing what this Bible says to do.
Now you're in a cult. I'm might awake. I got
to get this out. I gotta save these other men.
Dudes in the league. If you're in the league, you
(30:46):
hit me up. You do not have to sit here
and suffer as men trying to sit here and bow
down and worship and please and do all this stuff
for these women. So I'm at thirty five minutes, five
minutes over.
Speaker 5 (30:58):
That's it.
Speaker 15 (30:59):
Bless y'all, shaloon, shaloon, and I will see.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Y'all against.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Kabeer.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Robert, Daniel and TJ chose to follow Pastor Dowell for
a post football life that works for them. In another
video called from NFL to Servant, the four players talk
about their choice directly.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Here's Caber and we.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
See people are peers. We've seen celebrities make money, and
they're unhappy. They're some of the most unhappiest people in
the world. When you come to this man to the straightway,
you see people that are happy to truly have a
piece that passes all understanding. And us who's been in
that world would tell you in a heartbeat, this is
(31:38):
the place to be. But on the outside, it looks
like they don't get all the you know the amenities
and all this stuff, but when you come here and
you're around the people, it's contagious.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
I know one thing.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I'll be checking in on Straightway and Caber because I
don't think we've heard the last of this group. As
Kabir put it, it's contagious.
Speaker 16 (32:14):
Developing tonight, we're now learning what led police to rate
the Logan's Port property of a former Colts player turned pastor.
Right now, Daniel Muir and his wife Kristin are in
jail after police back.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Hi It's me Again about two months after returned in
the final edits of this podcast, something big happened, just
as I figured it eventually would. On July first, at
six am, the Indiana State Police SWAT team executed search
and arrest warrants and raided the Straightway Community in Logansport, Indiana,
the same one where former Colts players Daniel Muir and
(32:46):
Robert Mathis live. We visited Logansport in episode two. That day,
the state police were looking for fourteen year old Bryson Muir,
the oldest son of Daniel and his wife Kristin. Two
weeks earlier, Kristin called her mom Cheryl in Ohio and
is not part of Straightway. Cheryl told me that Kristen
called her in a panic. She was frantic and crying,
and Cheryl said her daughter told her she needed to
(33:08):
come pick up Bryson now because quote, he has to leave,
he can't stay here. Cheryl said her relationship with Kristen
had been strained ever since she became involved with Straightway,
but she always told her daughter that she would help,
no questions, asked if she ever needed her, and that
time had come. So Cheryl met her son in law, Daniel,
halfway between her home in Ohio and his in Indiana.
(33:31):
When her grandson Bryson got out of the car, Cheryl
told me she almost fainted when she saw his face.
It was swollen like a basketball and he had a
puffy black eye. Cheryl said Bryson told her it was
his dad.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Who'd hit him.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
After a few days with Bryson in her care, Cheryl
decided she would call the police to report this abuse.
She told me she didn't want Daniel to get away
with this. When Kristen called to check in, Cheryl told
her she planned to call the police. Cheryl said Kristen
asked her not to, and early the next morning, Kristin
showed up to take Bryson back home.
Speaker 16 (34:07):
No, uhuency, I have my grandson here that I went
to pick up from Toledo. They live in Indiana.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
He was badly abused by his.
Speaker 16 (34:18):
Parents, and now my daughter is here trying to take
him away, and I just need somebody to come and
not allow her child.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Cheryl hadn't known her daughter was coming to get Bryson,
so she called her local police as soon as Kristen
started fighting with her over her grandson. Police stopped Kristen
in her car just a few minutes after Cheryl's call,
but according to the call summary, they didn't see Bryson
in the car. They told Cheryl to call Indiana Child Services,
so a few days later, Cass County, Indiana officers made
(34:50):
a visit to the Mirrors property to assist Child Services
to investigate the allegations of child abuse, but according to
the call report, Daniel wouldn't allow the DCS case manager
inside to see Bryson or his other children, and he
wouldn't bring them outside either. According to the report, Daniel
told the officer and case manager that he and his
(35:10):
family have been harassed since they bought the property and
that they have done nothing wrong. A week later, Indiana
State Police issued a public release that said the Mirrors
agreed to meet with them at the station and to
bring Bryson, but an hour before the appointment, the Mirrors
backed out, so on that same day, ten days after
Bryson was last seen, the State Police issued a Silver
(35:32):
Alert to notify the public of his disappearance. When the
SWAT team rated that Monday in July, they arrested Daniel
and Kristen, and they took Bryson, who appeared safe and well,
into the care of the Department of Child Services. Daniel
and Kristen remained in jail for ten days before getting
out on bond. They are now allowed supervised visitation with
(35:53):
their son. They are charged with a Level six felony,
one of the lowest level felonies in Indiana, for obstruction
of justice, and Daniel is also charged with a misdemeanor
for domestic battery. They are represented by a defense attorney
and their criminal case will play out for the next
several months. In the four years I've been reporting about
(36:16):
Straightway Truth Ministry, this is the first time law enforcement
has had cause to enter and search one of their communities.
In addition to arresting the mirrors that day, law enforcement
also questioned other members of the community. Because the investigation
is ongoing, the search warrant is confidential and can't be
released to the public, and so was the incident report
(36:37):
that would tell us what happened and what was discovered
during the raid. I recently visited the Cass County Courthouse
in person and spoke to the prosecutor on the case.
He was a very nice man, and he appreciated my curiosity,
but he wouldn't give up any extra information. What you
do in your lane can really muck up what I
do in my lane, he told me.
Speaker 7 (36:59):
So.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I'm left wondering if the raid to make sure Bryson
Muirr Was safe Might become something even bigger. What did
officers find on the property? Who else did they question?
Speaker 4 (37:10):
What did they learn?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
We sent an extensive list of questions to Kapeir, Baja
b Amila, and T. J. Clemmings to get their responses.
We never heard back. Despite posting multiple YouTube videos acknowledging
Sports Illustrated was reporting a story on his ministry, Dewell
did not respond to requests for comment made via phone
through intermediaries at the Lafayette, Tennessee Compound and through Baja
b Ameila and via email. The email included a list
(37:38):
of the accusations detailed in this series. We reached out
to Lisa Harbin, no response, We couldn't find a way
to contact Jordan West directly, and Jordan's parents declined to comment.
Our gratitude goes out to all the people we interviewed
whose stories we did not have time to feature in
this series. There just wasn't enough time and space to
include everyone, but all of our interviews and conversation helped
(38:00):
shape everything you've heard.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Spiral is a production of Sports Illustrated Studios, iHeart Podcasts
and One on One Studios Podcasts. The show was reported
by me Kaylen Kaylor, with additional reporting by senior producer
Buffy Gorilla. Writing service provided by Buffy Gorilla and Jen Kinney,
sound design, mixing and mastering by Charlie Kaier. Sarah Sneath
is our fact checker, Scott Stone is our executive producer,
(38:24):
and Daniel Waxman is Director of Podcast Development and Podcast
Production Manager at One on One Studios. At iHeart Podcasts,
Shawan Tuton is our executive producer. Special thank you to
Michelle Newman, David Glasser, and David.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
Hutkin from One on One Studios.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, go visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
That's a wrap on Spirals. Thanks for listening.
I'm calling court case nineteen CM fifteen seventy State of
Wisconsin versus Ryan Robert Desmith. He is appearing in person
without counsel.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We're in green Bay, Wisconsin. It's January twenty twenty and
Kabir Baja Biamila's quote unquote brothers from Straightway Truth Ministry
are in court. They were arrested after they showed up
armed to a Christmas pageant at Kabir's children's school.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Were twenty two year old Ryan Desmouth and twenty four
year old Jordan Salmi are appearing on gun possession charges.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Their behavior in court is so out of the ordinary
it lands them on A and E's court camp.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Three weeks earlier, the man attended a church Christmas pageant
armed with loaded semi automatic pistols. Deastmouth and Salmi are
members of what's called the Hebrew Israelite community. Along with
former Green Bay packer Cabir Baja Biamilla known as KGB.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Kabir is in court too.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
He's not charged with anything, even though he sent the
men to surveil the pageant. Today he's just an observer
seated behind a glass partition watching d Smith and sell
me Buck against the justice system.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Do you hear my notice?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Their notice, Sir d Smith is called before the Court Commissioner.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
First, A stand on my notice?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Did you receive a copy of the criminal complaint?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
A stand on my notice served a little lot easier
if you just use it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
He's a wiry white guy with a very short buzz cut.
He wears glasses and a black shirt with gold fringe
along the bottom edge. Before this hearing, Desmouth and Selmy
filed a bunch of demands within the court, all handwritten,
all attempting to bolster their claim that US laws don't
apply to them and that they are quote unquote idiots.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Before the court, do you plan on hiring an attorney?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I don't understand what you're saying.
Speaker 7 (01:58):
I don't speak your language.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Speak man and man. Okay, I'm going to enter not fuilty.
Please on your behalf.
Speaker 8 (02:06):
If you insure plea on my behalf, you will be
helpfully liable.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
D Smith's defiant attitude and strange language are similar to
the courtroom strategies that other sovereign citizens use.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
This is nineteen CM fifteen seventy one, State of Wisconsin
versus Jordan Thomas Sumi.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
I'm not certain have a seat.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
When Jordan's saw me is called, he is also confrontational.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Got it be known this day?
Speaker 9 (02:31):
See for i'man Jordan saw me and in a state
of man now passing forward.
Speaker 10 (02:36):
Take him.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
I'm asking in its worded?
Speaker 10 (02:41):
Please? Is that an word?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
As he leaves, de Smith fistbumps Cabir, who is watching
this all go down.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
When Kabir exits the courtroom, he speaks to the press
who are covering the trial.
Speaker 11 (02:53):
They are not able to touch us right now and
they don't know how to.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Deal with this right now.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
After the hearing, in his first TV interviews since the arrest,
KGB tells us he's pleased with the results of court.
Speaker 11 (03:04):
That's a good thing for us because just like we said,
we didn't accept service, we're not accepting to be handled
like slaves.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
We do have rights and they recognize that.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Kabir still believes the men should have never been arrested
in the first place.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
They just got associated because of my situation.
Speaker 11 (03:18):
That had nothing to do with because that was just
a b that was a by product of just being
related to.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
It was a personal player.
Speaker 11 (03:25):
Oh it does not think I believe it was very
much so.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Open personal thing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Selmi and d Smith were ultimately sentenced to one year
of probation for a charge of carrying a concealed weapon,
and both men had to write letters of apology to
the responding police officers and to the Providence Academy head
Master Ron Young. Kabir hadn't been carrying a weapon that
day and wasn't charged in connection to this case, but
through his divorce proceedings, Kabir has had similar attention with
(04:04):
the courts due to his sovereign citizen beliefs. KGB's divorce
was finalized in twenty eighteen, but in twenty twenty he
had to go back to court to sign some additional documents.
Like a lot of sovereign citizens, he represented himself. One
article says he argued that his religious beliefs were above
civil law. Kabir refused to sign the documents, so the
judge sentenced him to six months in county jail for contempt.
(04:27):
As he later told his followers on YouTube.
Speaker 12 (04:30):
I was in there defending my constitutional right. You can't
even find attorneys to help you on your constitutional rights.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The Brown County sheriff deputies tried unsuccessfully to get Kabir
to comply with the arrest order, and when he didn't,
they tased and handcuffed him.
Speaker 11 (04:47):
They tasered me in the back.
Speaker 12 (04:48):
I got hit from behind and I looked like I
hit my head, so I got some swollen in my
face and in my neck.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
How did it feel to watch him get in court?
Speaker 7 (05:01):
I cried because he was crying.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Eileen, Kabir's ex, was in court that day, and she
watched all this go down, her husband of sixteen years
and the father of their eight children, seemed so helpless.
Just a few years ago, Kabir was thriving in NFL retirement,
and now he was getting arrested and stunned in court.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
I had compassion, like this man who has changed right
in front of my eyes, who has always had this
childlike attitude and this love after the change and all
this like tough facade, and he's still a little boy
who doesn't know how to deal with things, and he's
crying out. It was really sad. I just I felt
(05:44):
bad for him. Felt bad.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Kabir eventually agreed to sign the document, so the contempt
charge was dropped, but the resisting arrest charge stuck and
he was taken to jail. He was bonded out that
same afternoon.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
All right, appradly the Tennessee and that's a major newspaper
in the state of Tennessee, has got when of this
particular situation with brother Kabeer.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's hard to know how Pastor Dowell feels about these
moments when Straightway gets thrust into the limelight, when one
of his most recognizable followers ends up on the nightly news,
when Dowell and his ministry are getting attention that he
can't control.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Now, it's amazing all this surrounds Ryan and Jordan and Caber.
I'm way down in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Publicly, Pastor Dowell supported Kabir through his legal troubles. He
posted a video Pastor Dowell makes news for supporting former
NFL player Kabir Baja Biamila.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Now, all of a sudden, I'm thrust in the middle
of all this, which I don't mind being a part
of my brother, because I'm joined to the hippo with
my brother. It's no big deal.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So Pastor Charles Dowell is not in court, but over
the past few years, through Kabir and other high profile Saints,
Dowell's ideas and influence.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Are seemingly on trial.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I'm Kaalen Kaylor and this is spiraled episode six, Man
to man. In all of this, the almost four years
(07:29):
that I've spent investigating straight Away, I've talked to over
fifty people, including current and former members, their families and friends.
Speaker 9 (07:36):
I want to warn people about it. That's really the
short version of it.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
A lot of them are motivated to talk because they
don't want other people to go through what they did.
Speaker 10 (07:45):
I figured, if I can stop one person from getting
everything taken from them or their lives destroyed, then I
got to do something.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But I've never gotten the chance to speak to Pastor Dowell.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
I believe me. I've tried. Hey, my name's Kaylin Kaylor.
I've called a journalist or he on a podcast series.
So I am recording this phone call I was hung
up on and I emailed.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
They never wrote back. People on our team have tried extensively.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
We got close. We could never get directly.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
To him, but I know he's paying attention because Dowell
likes to talk about my reporting on YouTube.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
Well sports ill straight, I know you're watching, and you
have been watching, so now you've got my attention itself.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Let's see he's attacked my looks in his videos, made
fun of me and my producer, and he said the
only way he would talk to me is a live recording,
essentially a debate.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
And I'll even grant you this. I'll even give you
a live interview. I'll give you a live interview as
long as it's recorded live, so that way you can
twist or wop and distort my words or anything like that.
I liked getting out in front of the opening and
being able to have vigorous dialogue and discussion.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I wouldn't have debated him because that's not my job
as a reporter, but he's right.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
I really wanted to talk to him. I still do.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I want to hear his perspective when presented with the
claims made about him, and I've never gotten the chance to.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
So.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
In the end, we've learned a lot about the ministry's history,
it's preachings, it's appeal, but there are still so many gaps.
That's the thing about Straightway, Whether by Dowell's design or
just a lack of records, there is still so much
we don't know. Trying to figure out their legal status
was difficult. They don't appear to be registered anywhere in Tennessee.
They aren't registered as a for profit or nonprofit corporation
(09:34):
or a charity. Way back, Dowell had registered an LLC
under a different church name, and Ralph Stare had registered
a chapter in Tennessee too, but neither of those exist anymore.
But the current version of Straightway you can't find it anywhere.
They are off the books, and that's not necessarily illegal,
but it raises a lot of questions about how they
are handling things financially, especially with all these donations and
(09:57):
people turning over their life savings, properties and businesses they own.
How are they handling taxes consistent with the beliefs of
people who claim to be sovereign citizens. Straightway members actively
avoid creating government records, no birth certificates, no marriage licenses.
We're not sure if they file taxes. We've got loads
of property records, but they seem to beg more questions
(10:18):
than they answer.
Speaker 13 (10:23):
So they're avoiding all of this. But at the same time.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
I talked about all of this with our producer Buffy.
Speaker 13 (10:28):
If you go on to his YouTube channel and in
his comments he does want people to find him.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
We especially wanted to try and figure out Straightway's finances.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
That's one thing we do know.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
We know there's a lot of ways that Straightway gets
donations and gets money.
Speaker 13 (10:47):
So if you go to YouTube dot com at Pastor
Doowell and it's pretty much on the bottom of every
one of his videos.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Oh wait, okay, I just clicked on one, and if
he scrolled to the bottom, it says join me over
on Patreon, support me on Patreon, gifts offerings of support.
There's a Straightway email and then he says use that
for the PayPal donation. There's a link to his PayPal.
There's a cash app. His cash app user name.
Speaker 13 (11:16):
Is there, and there's two cash app because there's that
cash app Straightway Ministry twenty three. And then if that
one doesn't work, then he's got cash app dollar sign
Pastor Dowel.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So anyone watching Dabbe's videos and we know that's a
very common way for people to find Straightway is seeing multiple.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Ways to give to the ministry.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
There's the mailing address if you wanted to mail a check.
He also has a Patreon account, which is a platform
for creators that allows you to charge people to subscribe
for your content, and on his Patreon there's six different
tiers of membership levels. So they're titled Glory, Faith, Praise, Honor, Shalom,
and Power, and it goes from one dollar a month
(12:01):
up to one hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
I did pay to research it.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
For about a month because I wanted to see what
he was posting there.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I was curious.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Honestly, I didn't really see a big difference between what's
on his YouTube page and what is on his Patreon
at the time of recording. We can see that Dowell
has two hundred and twelve thousand subscribers on his YouTube
and fifteen hundred patrons on Patreon, But we don't know
how much money people are sending in.
Speaker 13 (12:28):
Do we know if those donations go straight to Dowell
or do they go to the church, and who decides
how they spend the money.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
We don't know where the money goes those online donations
ultimate use. That's another mystery. Straightway has also dabbled in MLMs.
At one point, the ministry was selling its own beauty products.
So there are multiple revenue streams, including the money that
members have to give up to Dowell When they move
on to a Straightway property, you know, you pull your
(12:59):
resources everyone brings everything they own to the land. And
you know, we've heard from people that if you work
outside the community. I know that in the Tennessee community,
there's several of them that work at the local Walmart.
So if you do have a job, we've been told
by a couple of people that those people bring their
paychecks to Dowell. You need to ask permission essentially to
(13:21):
buy whatever you need. The money is pooled and Dowell
is essentially controlling who can have it and how much.
And when someone gave me the example of something as
small and inexpensive as a guitar string, even that they
had to ask Dowell for the money to purchase.
Speaker 13 (13:38):
That sounds like it would create some tension and some
real disparities in living conditions and what people lives are
like there.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
According to former members, it does. We spoke to a
woman named Yanique Elliott, who surprised found the group on YouTube.
She and her husband never moved onto the Straightway property,
but they lived in Tennessee and drove over on weekends
for services and to fellowship. Yanique told us how Dowel's
house is different from the rest of the Saints.
Speaker 10 (14:07):
That's where I sort of got my first shock because
I went inside. It was completely nice, air conditioned, and
it was three bedrooms two and a half or just
two bathrooms. The couches were leather. They're definitely weren't pleathar
because they weren't striping or anything. It was a typical
home and it was nice.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Now compare that to how other people lived. Yanik visited
an older woman's home.
Speaker 10 (14:33):
So I went into her home and it was a
metal trailer and she didn't have any eag or fans
going or anything for comfort. It was so hot, just
think of like a suffocating heat. And I'm just like,
oh my goodness, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
But Yanique says the Saints were okay with it.
Speaker 10 (14:54):
We wanted the pastor to have a nice home, and
because they said there were peanu and buckets and so
now he a nice home. But they are comfortable with
the way they are. I was like, this is just weird.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And it's not just money, it's also possessions. Once when
Yannie and her husband Philip visited Straightway, they brought a
military style truck.
Speaker 10 (15:13):
So my husband, you know, being the big hearted person,
he told me not he was just gonna bring the
truck so they can use it, you know, to get
the materials from the store to the community.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
I was like, okay, fine.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
They also brought some gear, including a fifty caliber gun
and Ammo.
Speaker 10 (15:29):
He's like he can drive the people around kind of
like a hay ride and you know gun, so the
guys could shoot it and you know, get that experience.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
So the couple had a good day at Straightway, fellowshipping
and shooting with the other Saints. But then it came
time to leave and Philip went to get his things.
Speaker 10 (15:46):
Then I heard Dow say, oh, brother, phil are you
going to give this?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yanique says they felt pressure to leave the gear they'd brought.
She deferred to her husband, who turned over the gun
and the truck to Dowell, including the title again that
they estimated was worth ten thousand dollars. This was a
revealing moment for Yanik. She couldn't trust this pastor anymore. Eventually,
she and Philip decided Straightway wasn't the group for them,
so Philip went to ask Dowell for his stuff back.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yanik says Dowell told him.
Speaker 10 (16:15):
If I want the stuff back, I need to bring
to police the FBR to CIA if I want it back.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Did you ever get that truck back? No?
Speaker 10 (16:27):
Not not the truck, not the guns, not the ammal, nothing.
He kept it all, keeping it all. This is an
underlying theme in the way Dowell and Straightway operate. We
heard from multiple people that they or their family didn't
get their money back when they left the fellowship.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
It all made us wonder.
Speaker 13 (16:49):
You know, you've got these NFL players coming in, and
we know that Mathis and Kapier made millions in their careers.
Did they have to give up all of their money?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
That was something we know that Kabir's ex wife Aileen
and TJ's now ex wife Christiana were really nervous about
because they obviously still had families, they had their children,
and they wanted to make sure that they weren't going
to lose their money with their husband to this group
that they weren't even joining or being a part of.
And the short answer is no, Kabir didn't have to
(17:24):
give up all of his money. And we know that
because Rufus Caldwell, who was an elder at Straightway, talks
about whether the NFL players had to turn over their money.
Speaker 14 (17:33):
The requirement the same for all of those You want
to be a true disciple and a follower of the
most Hayya. We all required to give off. So these millionaires,
every single one of them that you see as part
of us, they all are willing.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
To give all.
Speaker 14 (17:45):
But here's the thing, passor down. He told Kabir, ain't
never managed that kind of money, even though you want
to give it. So what I say to you is
you keep it and manage it, because you do a
better job of managing it than I will. But was
he willing to turn it over? Absolutely, he don't get
a pass just because he's gotten millions.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Kabir runs his own straightway satellite. That could be part
of why he's not expected to give everything up. When
I spoke to Kabir in twenty twenty, this was a
topic that he was vague about. He said he gives
money to Dowell, but he didn't say how much, and
he wouldn't even tell me how many people were living
on his property in Green Bay. And it's not clear
if the people living there are expected to turn over
(18:26):
their money to Kaber.
Speaker 8 (18:30):
One of the things that I was told that might
be wise for me to do, given that what cults
do like they go after all your.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Means after TJ.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Clemings left his wife Christiana, she was worried about exactly this.
She tried to protect a portion of her financial assets
from TJ and straightway.
Speaker 8 (18:46):
One of my friends was like, I think you should
move some of the money from the account in case
he tries to give everything to them.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
At this point, they still shared a bank account even
though their marriage was in trouble. Christiana felt like it
was a big step to withdraw some of their joint funds,
and she tried to come up with an alternative way
to protect herself financially, like freezing the account or no
large wire transfers without both people signing off.
Speaker 8 (19:09):
There was nothing. There was no way. So I moved literally,
I calculated it down to the dollar, just one third.
I didn't do a half because I thought if I
do a half, to explain to him by reasoning why,
he won't believe me and think I'm trying to divorce him.
I was like, so I'll move a third so he
realizes I am just trying to create a safety net
(19:30):
in case these people convince him to do this.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Christiana transferred a third of their joint money into her
own account about forty five thousand dollars. One night, TJ
called and she was honest about what she'd done.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
He was super angry.
Speaker 8 (19:46):
The next day, I tried calling my fiduciary to figure
out another way, just to try again to see if
there was a way to put the money back without
him giving everything to them. And while I was talking
to Sean, Sean was like, oh all your Oh he's gone.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
It gets all gone. And I was like, where to go.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Just as she'd feared, TJ had moved a lot of
the rest of their money, nearly one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 8 (20:13):
I was like, can you see where the wire went?
And so he looked it up and it went to
his Servants Foundation, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and I was like, nice, lovely,
I used sarcasm to give myself comedic relief in the
tumultuous times of life.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
He moved the money to his Servants Foundation, which is
based in Green Bay, and according to our research affiliated
with Kabir So we're left with a big.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
List of unknowns.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
But what we do know is that life on the
other side of Straightway's Baptismal Creek is tough, and leaving
that community can sometimes be harder than staying. That's after
the break. As we got toward the end of our reporting.
(21:20):
In summer twenty twenty three, Straightway posted yet another video,
this time not starring Pastor Dowell.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
It starts at the black screen.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And white text that reads Straightway twenty five years a man,
a vision, a legacy. Then photos start fading into view
of Straightway's Tennessee property, starting with its creation in nineteen
ninety eight. It's an anniversary video. Straightway's been around for
twenty five years. The photos show brightly colored buildings in
(21:50):
the Saints Building, a dining hall in the Tabernacle, and
services being led with a guitar down by the creek.
The comments on the video are full of praise for
all that Dowell has a common but people who've left
the ministry have a very different take on its legacy.
Most of the people I interviewed were willing to talk
because they're not in Straightway anymore. Leaving was hard to do,
(22:11):
so they gave up a community, a shared faith, and
sometimes a lot of money, and even after leaving, their
time in the ministry still impacts their lives. My source,
who I told you about in episode four, remember I
spoke to her for my original story in twenty twenty.
After she left Straightway Tennessee, she faced a long period
of trying to adapt to the real world. She suffered
(22:33):
really bad anxiety. There were huge gaps in my source's education.
When she was fifteen, she said she was at a
fourth grade level in everything. My source says her sister
struggled with depression right after they left, but is doing
good and in school now. But their mom had a
harder time adjusting to life without the Straightway schedule. She
shut down and locked herself in her room. This frustrated
(22:55):
my source. She wanted her mom to make the most
of their new situation. In episod so for it, you
heard about my sources little sister who was born at
Straightway Because of the ministry's beliefs about government records, she
had no birth certificate, no record of her legal existence,
and my source's mom told me in twenty twenty, several
years after leaving, that she was still struggling to create
(23:16):
one these days, my source is making plans for the future.
She has a job, a house, and a car. She'd
liked to go back to school, but with work and
being a mom, it's hard for her to fit it
all in.
Speaker 9 (23:28):
I'm still to this day hypervigilant. I'm constantly analyzing people
to see what their mood is, how they're going to
treat me.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You know, Michael Burkhou, who we heard from in episode three,
has been living with the impact of the Overcomer and
Straightway for years. It creeps up when he's not expecting it.
Speaker 9 (23:47):
I think there's some like PTSD stuff from it. To
be honest, I have such anxiety and depression that it's
hard for me to function like I have a job,
I have a life, I have a partner, but I'm
still trucking. So there you have it.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Are you surprised Straightway has been around for now, you know,
twenty plus years.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
Yes, I am very surprised. I mean, I guess I
shouldn't be. I am surprised when I go onto YouTube
and I see that his videos have two hundred comments
on them or whatever. That surprises me. That shows me
that he is getting traction in certain circles, and that
is not good. That's gonna ruin a lot of people's lives.
(24:36):
They are definitely a cult. I think that they tick
all the boxes for what one would consider a cult.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
We were careful not to use the word cult when
talking about Straightway in this podcast, because the word can
mean different things to different people. The line between a
cult and a religious movement is a thin one. Dowell
has videos talking about this. One of them is titled
Jesus Christ was a cult leader, and Kabeer posted his
own video asking Packers fans if Packer's fandom is a
(25:04):
cult because he thinks it is.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
So.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
We didn't want to classify this group ourselves without having
personally visited or spent time there, But a lot of
the people we talked to use the word cult to
describe Straightway.
Speaker 9 (25:16):
The way that they use religion to manipulate people and
make them give away their worldly goods and cut them
off from their families. Those are all classic things that
cults do. The whole gathering together and living together in
a commune very very clearly occults.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
And what about Kabir, Robert Daniel, and TJ. Straightway's NFL contingent.
All four are still in Straightway, and they're in deeper
than ever. In fact, they're climbing the rings. When Kabir joined,
he was brother Kabir. Now he's elder Kabir. And since
separating from Aileen. He's remarried within straightway and has several
(25:57):
more children. Remember, in twenty twenty, I did interview Kabir
for my original article. We talked for six hours, during
which Kabir didn't even take a break to use the
bathroom or get some water. He was friendly and energetic
and candid about his new life. He talked about almost everything.
Some of his answers really surprised me, mostly when he
(26:18):
talked about his eight children with Eileen. He called them
his seed and said he can plant more seeds. It
was like he didn't miss them or care about them
as human.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Beings at all. It was really darring to hear.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
When I was reporting on this podcast, Kabir again talked
to me for hours, just not on the record. But
of course he has shared a lot of this journey
on YouTube, posting a video A message to all my
children shortly after his divorce.
Speaker 11 (26:45):
I'm going to do a message, a separate message to
my children.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
It's addressed to all his kids, including his last who
he's never met.
Speaker 11 (26:52):
Baby number eight. I did not give him his name,
so I didn't have not met him yet, but I'll
call him by number eight. I just want. You guys
know I did the very best I could to lead
this family, to lead your mother and your and you children,
and Yah's everlasting way. That was my heart. It's still
my heart today. But unfortunately turn of events, your mom
(27:17):
bid the fruit.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Kabir appears to be at peace with his decision to
fully commit to Straightway and leave his first family behind.
Speaker 11 (27:24):
And y'all told me that he would test me to
see if I truly love him. I believe I passed
the test. That I've shown him that I love him
more than I love my wife, my children, my mother,
my father, my brother, my sister, my friends. I love him.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
It's clear.
Speaker 11 (27:42):
It's clear I fear.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
And when I did my interview with Kabir in July
of twenty twenty, he told me he'd already married again
and he had another son. He says he wants to
have ninety four children, a nod to his Jersey number,
and he knows he needs more than one woman to
achieve that goal. The ex NFL wives, Eileen and Christiana,
they're moving forward with their lives. Christiana Cook formerly Clemmings,
(28:07):
still lives in Minnesota. She is beyond busy raising five kids,
her only window for interviews was over naptime. When her
marriage fell apart, she had to sell the farm and
move back in with her parents. It's been tough, but
Christiana has found a silver lining.
Speaker 8 (28:22):
They have the heritage of growing up with their grandparents
and their uncle. So they missed out on a father.
But I feel like what they got in return is
like a lot better in reality, because I don't think
he just had the amount of love to give that
they would have needed.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
And Eileen, she remarried. She and her husband have done
a next level Brady bunch. They've blended her eight kids
with his seven. That's fifteen kids. When we interviewed her,
she was wearing a T shirt with a motto that
sums up her past few years.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Can you read it for us?
Speaker 7 (28:57):
Okay, I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter
than the fire around me.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Since everything, she's left Green Bay and she's written a book,
Sidelined No More, helping pro athlete wives get off the
bench to live out their God given purpose. If they
hadn't played in the NFL, Robert Daniel, Kabir and TJ
might still have found their way to Pastor Dowell's YouTube channel.
Some of them might still have left their first wives
(29:26):
and children behind for a different life. We'll never know,
but conversations with former NFL players reinforce the difficulties of
leaving the league. Going from this highly structured, all encompassing
NFL experience to a sudden end that's often out of
players control. That vanished career can create a void that
the players need to fill with something equally meaningful. One
(29:50):
player told me in the aftermath, these men can be
left in a fragile state with hurt egos, and that
can lead them vulnerable to people who want to take
advantage of them. Some might say that these former players
who joined straightway have spirals, but they might say, for
the first time, they're grounded.
Speaker 8 (30:10):
Now.
Speaker 15 (30:10):
The narrative of man TJ is going crazy. He's lost
his mind, he's joined a cult.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Here's TJ Clemings again from his own YouTube video in
which he addresses people who think he's abandoned his family.
Speaker 15 (30:24):
It's crazy the moment you start actually trying to say,
you know what, let me do, let me try, let
me loosely try with the smallest thing. Let me try
to actually start doing what this Bible says to do.
Now you're in a cult. I'm might awake. I got
to get this out. I gotta save these other men.
Dudes in the league. If you're in the league, you
(30:46):
hit me up. You do not have to sit here
and suffer as men trying to sit here and bow
down and worship and please and do all this stuff
for these women. So I'm at thirty five minutes, five
minutes over.
Speaker 5 (30:58):
That's it.
Speaker 15 (30:59):
Bless y'all, shaloon, shaloon, and I will see.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Y'all against.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Kabeer.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Robert, Daniel and TJ chose to follow Pastor Dowell for
a post football life that works for them. In another
video called from NFL to Servant, the four players talk
about their choice directly.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Here's Caber and we.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
See people are peers. We've seen celebrities make money, and
they're unhappy. They're some of the most unhappiest people in
the world. When you come to this man to the straightway,
you see people that are happy to truly have a
piece that passes all understanding. And us who's been in
that world would tell you in a heartbeat, this is
(31:38):
the place to be. But on the outside, it looks
like they don't get all the you know the amenities
and all this stuff, but when you come here and
you're around the people, it's contagious.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
I know one thing.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I'll be checking in on Straightway and Caber because I
don't think we've heard the last of this group. As
Kabir put it, it's contagious.
Speaker 16 (32:14):
Developing tonight, we're now learning what led police to rate
the Logan's Port property of a former Colts player turned pastor.
Right now, Daniel Muir and his wife Kristin are in
jail after police back.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Hi It's me Again about two months after returned in
the final edits of this podcast, something big happened, just
as I figured it eventually would. On July first, at
six am, the Indiana State Police SWAT team executed search
and arrest warrants and raided the Straightway Community in Logansport, Indiana,
the same one where former Colts players Daniel Muir and
(32:46):
Robert Mathis live. We visited Logansport in episode two. That day,
the state police were looking for fourteen year old Bryson Muir,
the oldest son of Daniel and his wife Kristin. Two
weeks earlier, Kristin called her mom Cheryl in Ohio and
is not part of Straightway. Cheryl told me that Kristen
called her in a panic. She was frantic and crying,
and Cheryl said her daughter told her she needed to
(33:08):
come pick up Bryson now because quote, he has to leave,
he can't stay here. Cheryl said her relationship with Kristen
had been strained ever since she became involved with Straightway,
but she always told her daughter that she would help,
no questions, asked if she ever needed her, and that
time had come. So Cheryl met her son in law, Daniel,
halfway between her home in Ohio and his in Indiana.
(33:31):
When her grandson Bryson got out of the car, Cheryl
told me she almost fainted when she saw his face.
It was swollen like a basketball and he had a
puffy black eye. Cheryl said Bryson told her it was
his dad.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Who'd hit him.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
After a few days with Bryson in her care, Cheryl
decided she would call the police to report this abuse.
She told me she didn't want Daniel to get away
with this. When Kristen called to check in, Cheryl told
her she planned to call the police. Cheryl said Kristen
asked her not to, and early the next morning, Kristin
showed up to take Bryson back home.
Speaker 16 (34:07):
No, uhuency, I have my grandson here that I went
to pick up from Toledo. They live in Indiana.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
He was badly abused by his.
Speaker 16 (34:18):
Parents, and now my daughter is here trying to take
him away, and I just need somebody to come and
not allow her child.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Cheryl hadn't known her daughter was coming to get Bryson,
so she called her local police as soon as Kristen
started fighting with her over her grandson. Police stopped Kristen
in her car just a few minutes after Cheryl's call,
but according to the call summary, they didn't see Bryson
in the car. They told Cheryl to call Indiana Child Services,
so a few days later, Cass County, Indiana officers made
(34:50):
a visit to the Mirrors property to assist Child Services
to investigate the allegations of child abuse, but according to
the call report, Daniel wouldn't allow the DCS case manager
inside to see Bryson or his other children, and he
wouldn't bring them outside either. According to the report, Daniel
told the officer and case manager that he and his
(35:10):
family have been harassed since they bought the property and
that they have done nothing wrong. A week later, Indiana
State Police issued a public release that said the Mirrors
agreed to meet with them at the station and to
bring Bryson, but an hour before the appointment, the Mirrors
backed out, so on that same day, ten days after
Bryson was last seen, the State Police issued a Silver
(35:32):
Alert to notify the public of his disappearance. When the
SWAT team rated that Monday in July, they arrested Daniel
and Kristen, and they took Bryson, who appeared safe and well,
into the care of the Department of Child Services. Daniel
and Kristen remained in jail for ten days before getting
out on bond. They are now allowed supervised visitation with
(35:53):
their son. They are charged with a Level six felony,
one of the lowest level felonies in Indiana, for obstruction
of justice, and Daniel is also charged with a misdemeanor
for domestic battery. They are represented by a defense attorney
and their criminal case will play out for the next
several months. In the four years I've been reporting about
(36:16):
Straightway Truth Ministry, this is the first time law enforcement
has had cause to enter and search one of their communities.
In addition to arresting the mirrors that day, law enforcement
also questioned other members of the community. Because the investigation
is ongoing, the search warrant is confidential and can't be
released to the public, and so was the incident report
(36:37):
that would tell us what happened and what was discovered
during the raid. I recently visited the Cass County Courthouse
in person and spoke to the prosecutor on the case.
He was a very nice man, and he appreciated my curiosity,
but he wouldn't give up any extra information. What you
do in your lane can really muck up what I
do in my lane, he told me.
Speaker 7 (36:59):
So.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I'm left wondering if the raid to make sure Bryson
Muirr Was safe Might become something even bigger. What did
officers find on the property? Who else did they question?
Speaker 4 (37:10):
What did they learn?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
We sent an extensive list of questions to Kapeir, Baja
b Amila, and T. J. Clemmings to get their responses.
We never heard back. Despite posting multiple YouTube videos acknowledging
Sports Illustrated was reporting a story on his ministry, Dewell
did not respond to requests for comment made via phone
through intermediaries at the Lafayette, Tennessee Compound and through Baja
b Ameila and via email. The email included a list
(37:38):
of the accusations detailed in this series. We reached out
to Lisa Harbin, no response, We couldn't find a way
to contact Jordan West directly, and Jordan's parents declined to comment.
Our gratitude goes out to all the people we interviewed
whose stories we did not have time to feature in
this series. There just wasn't enough time and space to
include everyone, but all of our interviews and conversation helped
(38:00):
shape everything you've heard.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Spiral is a production of Sports Illustrated Studios, iHeart Podcasts
and One on One Studios Podcasts. The show was reported
by me Kaylen Kaylor, with additional reporting by senior producer
Buffy Gorilla. Writing service provided by Buffy Gorilla and Jen Kinney,
sound design, mixing and mastering by Charlie Kaier. Sarah Sneath
is our fact checker, Scott Stone is our executive producer,
(38:24):
and Daniel Waxman is Director of Podcast Development and Podcast
Production Manager at One on One Studios. At iHeart Podcasts,
Shawan Tuton is our executive producer. Special thank you to
Michelle Newman, David Glasser, and David.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
Hutkin from One on One Studios.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, go visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
That's a wrap on Spirals. Thanks for listening.
Host
Kalyn Kahler
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