Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009

Kurt Warner was QB on charity team with Coleman 2 months before triple murders

Two months before he was accused of killing his wife and children who were found strangled in their beds, a video showed Christopher Coleman playing on a Joyce Meyer Ministries flag football team quarterbacked by Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals at a charity event.

And Coleman's lover, Tara Lintz, was with him on the Arizona trip, according to Enrico Mirabelli, a cousin of Coleman's wife, Sheri Coleman, and a lawyer who has filed a wrongful death suit against Coleman.

Warner, fresh from his Super Bowl appearance, played quarterback for the eight-man, flag football Joyce Meyer Ministries team at charity event March 6 and 7 called the Ultimate Football Experience to raise money for his First Things First Foundation at the Cardinals training facility in Tempe, Ariz.

"We are very confident that the evidence will show that Tara was with Chris and members of the Joyce Meyer Ministries in Arizona, among other places," Mirabelli said.

At the time, Coleman was the $100,000-a-year personal bodyguard for televangelist Joyce Meyer. Coleman was a childhood friend of Dan Meyer, who is the chief executive officer of Meyer Ministries and Joyce Meyer's son. Mirabelli told reporters earlier this month that Dan Meyer was on business trips when Coleman and Lintz, a high school friend of Coleman's wife Sheri, met for their trysts.

"Dan Meyer never traveled with Tara Lintz," said Mike King, the ministry's lawyer. "Dan Meyer has no recollection of having met Tara Lintz."

Lintz could not be reached for comment at the St. Petersburg, Fla., dog racing track where she works.

Warner, a devout Christian and former St. Louis Rams Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, is on the board of Joyce Meyer Ministries.

The event kicked off with a draft party. Other NFL stars such as Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart, Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin, former Detroit Lions quarterback Rodney Peete and former Cardinals quarterback Josh McCown, played on the corporately-sponsored teams at $20,000 each.

First Things First Foundations and Arizona Cardinal spokesmen referred questions about the event and its participants to Joyce Meyer Ministries.

"The ministry has been involved in this for a couple of years," King said. "I think it is a situation where they have a team and ask any of the employees if they want to play."

Coleman did.

On the video that appears on the Arizona Cardinals Web site, Coleman, wearing a red football jersey, appears to try to pull the flag from an opposing player who is carrying the ball.

Eight weeks after the event, Coleman's wife, Sheri Coleman, 31, and her two sons, Gavin, 9, and Garett, 11, were found strangled in the beds of their Columbia home. Coleman was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and could face the death penalty if he's convicted.

Sheri Coleman's mother, Angela DeCicco, and her brother, Mario Weiss, filed the wrongful death lawsuit weeks after the homicides, and named Joyce Meyer Ministries as a respondent in discovery to obtain information related to the suit.

Mirabelli and his co-counsel, Belleville lawyer Jack Carey, filed a motion to add Joyce Meyer Ministries to the suit, alleging ministry members knew or should have known that death threats to Coleman were being sent from his work laptop computer. The ministry should have contacted the police regarding the threats which began in November -- about six months before the murders, Mirabelli stated in court documents.

Mirabelli will seek to depose Joyce Meyer and other ministry employees, including the ministry's Webmaster and Mike Cole, one of Christopher Coleman's co-workers. One or all of those employees may also testify at a hearing Dec. 18. Judge Dennis Doyle will then decide whether to convert the ministries from a respondent in discovery to a defendant in the wrongful death civil lawsuit.

Coleman remains in the Monroe County Jail without bond on the criminal charges.