BOTTOM LINE Phillips Temple pastor in legal hot water

According to Gardner’s booking report, prepared by the Marina Sheriff’s Station deputies who arrested the minister, this is what happened that fateful day:

Stevenson parked his car in front of Phillips Temple’s parsonage. Gardner came out of the house and told Stevenson to remove the car because he didn’t want anybody parking in front of his house. Stevenson told Gardner that it was a public street and he can park anywhere he wants on a public street. The motorist said the minister went into his house and emerged with a gun, pointed it at him and told him he had better move his car. The motorist moved his car around the corner and, using his cell phone, called law enforcement to the scene.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived and questioned Gardner about the matter. According to their report, Gardner began explaining that he was tired of people parking in front of his house and taking up space his family and visitors need. The deputies wrote that Gardner complained of people laying on his lawn and interfering with his ability to operate his sprinklers properly.

While the minister never denied threatening the motorist, the deputies said they asked him if he had a gun. “He told us ‘no,’ so we asked if we could go into the house and take a look,” the deputies wrote. “When we went inside, we found several guns and one in plain sight on his nightstand in the bedroom. We asked Gardner why he lied and told us he had no gun? He told us, ‘It was none of your business.’”

The deputies’ report continued: “We arrested him, handcuffed him and put him in our car, and as we were driving to the Marina Station, the talkative suspect said to us: ‘I would have been better off if I had shot him,’” at which they added another felony count to Gardner’s charges. The pastor was booked and ultimately released on $150,000 bail.

Gardner was originally charged with three felonies and one misdemeanor, but one felony was dropped during his May 16 court appearance, leaving him with one count of “making a criminal threat,” a felony; one count of “assault with a firearm,” a felony; and one count of “carrying a firearm that is not registered,” a misdemeanor. A pre-trial hearing on the charges is set for July 11.

The members of Phillips Temple are reported to have accumulated $7,000 for a defense fund for Gardner, who has been their pastor only since August 2011. Before that, Gardner was pastor of another venerable local CME church, Hays Tabernacle, for 17 years. I spoke with him Tuesday and he declined to comment on his situation and refused me access to his attorney.

However, his superior — Bishop James B. Walker, head of the 9th Episcopal CME District — said this: “We believe in the judicial system and we are waiting for the process to take its course. We are all equal in that arena — whether we are laymen and laywomen or church pastors.”