The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review the case of a former Colleyville, Texas, woman who says that a forced exorcism left her so physically and emotionally scarred that she later tried to commit suicide.

A divided Texas Supreme Court ruled in June that the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God staff and members are protected by the First Amendment because the case involves an ecclesiastical dispute over religious conduct.

Laura Schubert Pearson described a night in 1996 that involved casting out demons from the church and two attempts to exorcise demons from her. The incident led Pearson, then 17, to eventually attempt suicide, she said.

1st Amendment dispute

Pearson’s attorneys contend that the Texas Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision “dramatically and dangerously departs” from the U.S. Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence, adding that someone’s religious beliefs do not excuse them from being held accountable under valid state laws.

“We don’t know what kind of mischief the decision is going to create,” because it tries to expand the universe of activities that are protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of religion precepts, Scott Gant, the Washington, D.C., attorney who is representing Pearson and her family, said this week.

In briefs filed this month with the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys representing the now-defunct church contend that the case is a personal injury action regarding mental anguish damages that should be left for state courts.

Arguing that a similar claim has never been made in a federal court, David Pruessner, the church’s attorney, also wrote that “pursuing this tort path would take the courts into forbidden territory: protected religious conduct.”

“It is fundamental that the Constitution embraces the right to be free from unwarranted governmental intervention,” Pruessner’s brief states.

Gant expects the Supreme Court to decide by mid- to late January whether it will take the case. Pearson is now 29, married and living in Georgia.

Church incident

What happened to Laura Schubert Pearson at the church spanned several days in the summer of 1996.

According to court documents, Pearson and her brother, Joey, were involved in church activities on a Friday evening, when another youth said he saw a demon.

At the youth minister’s direction, the youths anointed everything in the church with holy oil and dismissed early Saturday morning. At the Sunday evening worship services, Laura Pearson collapsed; church members “laid hands” on her and held her arms even as she cried, yelled and demanded to be let go. She was released after she calmed down and complied with requests to say “Jesus.”

The following Wednesday, during a youth service, Pearson reportedly began acting in the same manner. Church members thought she was in distress and held her down in a “spread eagle” position. Pearson suffered carpet burns and scrapes on her back and bruised wrists.

After the exorcism, she dropped out of high school and began to cut herself as many as 100 times over several years.

Court case

Pearson’s father questioned what happened, and the family eventually sued.

A jury found the church and its members liable and awarded Pearson $300,000 for mental anguish; the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth cut $122,000 from the verdict.

The church’s appeal to the Texas Supreme Court raised the question of whether Pleasant Glades’ First Amendment rights prevent the church from being held liable for mental distress triggered by what it described as a “hyper spiritualistic environment.”