Poulsbo pastor arrested 3 times for assaulting wife before he left post

A pastor at a Poulsbo church was arrested three times for domestic violence against his wife starting in 2012 but didn’t leave his leadership role until 2019, following his third arrest.

James Daniel Newman, 40, was the worship pastor at North Kitsap Baptist Church through his first two arrests for fourth-degree assault in January 2012 and May 2019. The Poulsbo city prosecutor charged Newman with fourth-degree assault after his third arrest in September 2019.

The most recent case was delayed by COVID-19, and for the city and Newman to prepare for trial, but before trial Newman signed a two-year diversion agreement in May. It is the second such diversion agreement in Poulsbo Municipal Court that Newman has made after being charged with assaulting his wife.

Diversion is a program where people charged with crimes agree to complete treatment or other rehabilitation programs and not commit new crimes for a period of time in exchange for the dismissal of the charges. If Newman abides by the terms of the diversion agreement, his second charge of fourth-degree assault will be dismissed in 2024 and kept off his criminal record.

Newman’s first diversion agreement, which he completed, followed his arrest on Jan. 1, 2012. At that time he was accused of putting his hands around the woman’s neck and saying he was going to kill her, according to Poulsbo police records. The woman also claimed Newman had struck her in the face with an Xbox video game controller, leaving a bruise.

Newman was arrested a second time for assaulting his wife on May 31, 2019, at their Central Valley Road residence when the woman called 911 to report that Newman had struck her in the chest with a cellphone during an argument, according to Kitsap County Sheriff's Office records.

Newman denied using any force when handing his phone to the woman, however, deputies reported observing a mark on the woman’s chest. Kitsap County prosecutors declined to file charges.

Newman’s third arrest came on Sept. 25, 2019, by Poulsbo police. The woman alleged during an argument outside their car, with their young daughter inside, that Newman used his shoulder to hit her.

“I tried to evade him, but I was next to the car and he hit me with his upper body on my shoulder,” the woman wrote in a statement included in court documents from Poulsbo Municipal Court. “My shoulder was throbbing in pain after he hit me.”

The Kitsap Sun interviewed the woman three times by telephone. She requested her name not be published. She has since moved out of state and works as a teacher.

Newman and his attorneys did not respond to repeated attempts to contact them and offers to participate in this story.

The woman further alleged that after Newman’s first arrest in 2012, another pastor at North Kitsap Baptist Church, Youth Pastor Duncan Forbes, “coerced” her into dropping a protection order, saying Newman could lose his job at the church. The order would have prevented Newman from contacting the woman.

“He just said, if you don't want James to lose his job you need to be at this hearing and let them know that you don't need a protective order,” the woman told the Kitsap Sun during an interview.

The woman also included this allegation in a written statement in Poulsbo Municipal Court records obtained by the Kitsap Sun through the state Public Records Act.

Before going to court and asking for the protection order to be dropped, the woman said she asked Forbes if she should use makeup to conceal the bruise on her face allegedly caused when Newman hit her with the Xbox controller.

“It wasn’t like he took a whole lot of thought into a response,” the woman said. “It was almost like he didn't want to say it, but he was just like, ‘Yeah, you can do that.’ Or something like that.”

The woman said she had trusted Forbes – she had attended the church since she was a girl and Forbes officiated her wedding – and she asked him to protect her from Newman.

“I felt like, when I was asking that question, I was hoping he would say, ‘Yes, I will protect you. I'll make sure that James doesn't hurt you,’” the woman said. “It was a weird thing to want somebody to say, but that's what I was expecting or hoping he would say.”

The woman said Forbes made no such commitment and at the time her finances were intertwined with Newman.

Despite feeling unsafe, the woman said she met with the city's prosecutor and asked for the protection order to be dropped. The prosecutor responded by repeatedly asking if she was sure and if this was the choice she wanted to make.

“He was almost pleading with me,” the woman said. “I really wanted to get up and say, ‘No, no, this is not the choice I want to make right now. I just feel like I’m trapped and I don’t have any other choice.’”

Forbes and Senior Pastor Terry Tharp did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.

Geneece Goertzen-Morrison, a Baptist minister who focuses on issues of domestic violence and faith and writes columns for Baptist News Global, said Newman’s first arrest and diversion should have resulted in his termination from his role as a pastor.

“That should be automatic dismissal from any kind of leadership position,” Goertzen-Morrison said. “Even looking at a theological level, that should have been disqualification from leadership for treating his wife in that manner.”

Following Newman's third arrest in September 2019, the woman said Newman wrote a letter to the North Kitsap Baptist Church congregation, which she provided to the Kitsap Sun.

In the letter, Newman did not disclose the allegations but said he was taking “administrative leave” from his worship pastor position to “focus on my family and marriage.”

Further, Newman’s letter asks congregants to keep “these sensitive details private.”

“The board and pastor are fully aware, and helping me through this time,” Newman wrote.

Newman’s current role with the church is unclear. The North Kitsap Baptist Church website does not list him as a pastor but includes links to eight recorded sermons credited to Newman. The most recent is from September 2019 – the month of his third arrest – called “Burning the plows: A call for radical obedience.”

The woman said she was conflicted about divorce, but after Newman’s third arrest she made the decision to leave.

“The community I grew up in was the Christian community,” she said. “And my family was firmly against a divorce and they kind of treated people like they're bad people if they get divorced.”

She said a Christian counselor, and assistance from local nonprofits like the YWCA Kitsap County and the Kitsap Sexual Assault Center, helped her come to terms with ending her marriage.

To women in abusive relationships, she offered these words: “No one is coming to save you. This is a really hard choice that you have to make for yourself and maybe your children, if you have them. And you don’t have to have the support of your family in order to get out.”

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Poulsbo pastor James Newman arrested for domestic violence