Exclusive YTMP content by Peter J. Reilly.

Kent Hovind has made it into the national news again.  We have from the Washington Post – Kent Hovind, controversial creationist preacher known as ‘Dr. Dino,’ arrested in domestic assault case.  The story by Bob Smietana came from Religion New Service.  It tells us:

An arrest warrant dated July 19 alleges that the Rev. Kent Hovind, known as “Dr. Dino,” intentionally threw his estranged wife, Cindi Lincoln, to the ground, causing bodily harm.

 

The same day the arrest warrant was filed, Lincoln also filed a petition for a protective order against Hovind in Conecuh County, Alabama. The petition alleges one of Hovind’s associates threatened Lincoln with a gun in January 2021. The alleged domestic assault occurred in October 2020, according to the petition.

There is quite a bit more to the story than that. First a bit of background, which some of you may choose to skip.

About Kent Hovind

Kent Hovind is an Independent Baptist minister and an advocate of Young Earth Creationism.  YEC is the notion that there is scientific support for a hyper literal reading of Genesis.  Sum up all those begats and you get a world that is about 6,000 years old.  One of the implications of YEC is that people and dinosaurs must have coexisted.  Hence his sobriquet Doctor Dino and the creation in Pensacola of Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL).

In 2006 Hovind and his then wife Jo were convicted of a variety of tax related crimes.  They were also found civilly  liable for millions of dollars in income tax including fraud penalties.  Creation Science Evangelism, a “non-statutory trust”, was found to be an alter ego of Hovind and its real property was seized to cover structuring penalties. Hovind spent nearly the next nine years in prison. Jo spent a year in prison,

In 2015 nearing the end of the sentence on his 2006 conviction, Hovind faced prosecution for actions he took in regard to the property seized as a result of his conviction.  His cause was taken up by right wing alternative media making it as far as Alex Jones.  Some sharp legal work and a bit of juror nullification saved him from another conviction.

His homecoming in Pensacola in 2015 was rather disappointing and he got into a fairly bitter dispute about CSE property with his son.  Jo divorced him.  He moved to Repton, Alabama where he opened a new Dinosaur Adventure Land and runs a lively Youtube channel where you will learn that:

The Bible is true and evolution is dumb. Dinosaurs always lived with man. They did not live millions of years ago.  And evolution is the dumbest and most dangerous religion in the history of the world

About Dinosaur Adventure Land

Kent’s long term consigliere Ernie Land made sure that the new DAL was structured to be conventionally tax compliant.  There is a not for profit, recognized as a 501(c)(3) and a church by the IRS – Creation Science Evangelism Ministries Inc. (CSEM). Church status spares them the 990 filing requirement and it is really hard for IRS to initiate an audit of a church

Then there is CSE Inc, an S corporation owned by Ernie Land.  It rents space from CSEM and has the right to run the store.  CSE has a ten year renewable contract with Kent Hovind for the use of his intellectual property – $1,300 per month.

The work at DAL is done by volunteers many of whom live on site.  There is quite a bit of turnover.  At any time there are between twenty and thirty and it is rare for someone to stay for more than a year.  When Abigail Meggison interviewed a batch of the then volunteers she noted:

For those passionate about creation evangelism, DAL is an oasis. It’s an opportunity for volunteers to embed themselves in a community of people who think and care about the same beliefs they do. Yet, it isn’t all rainbows and dinosaurs.

Cindi Lincoln

Cindi Lincoln was one of the people drawn to the work and she still holds the same beliefs.  She thinks it is important for people’s faith that they understand that the Bible is scientifically accurate.  When Cindi came to DAL, Kent was married to Mary Tocco, who left because she was not satisfied that the CSEM board was holding to the straight and narrow and she did not want to be the second Hovind spouse to end up doing time.  Kent is still under the shadow of a large civil liability for income tax.

Kent’s wedding to Cindi received much less publicity, although it was by no means a secret.  When I took a tour of DAL riding shotgun in the “mule” with Doc Dino, he mentioned his wife and identified her as Cindi who had been engaging about gardening with my son while we waited for Hovind to finish besting one more atheist in debate.

Apparently neither of the two marriages asked for the blessing of the State of Alabama.  This creates a peculiar situation as Alabama stopped recognizing common law marriages entered into after 2016.  So under state law Hovind might have been married to Mary Tocco and some have speculated still is.  On the other hand he is most likely not married to Cindi Lincoln under state law.

At any rate Cindi owned a house in California which she was renting out for income.  She sold it and wanted to replace the income with rental property in Alabama.  She told me that she picked up the idea of rental property as a sound source of reliable income from her father.  She sold the California property and acquired at least one local rental property.  She also gave around $100,000 to the ministry.  According to Ernie Land, she gave by buying things some of which were of use to the ministry and others not so much.

A Not So Great Idea

When it comes to real estate California is different from Alabama.  Cindi was going to buy multiple properties to replace the income from the California property.  She already had $700 per month and needed another $1,300 per month.  Why not put an additional $133,000 into the ministry in exchange for an annuity of $1,300 per month?

It gets confusing and contradictory from here, but an agreement was made that gave her $1,300 per month for twenty years.  Only it was not with the ministry, it was with the S Corporation.  And he agreement does not mention the $133,000 Cindi would be putting into the ministry (by paying for things rather than cash transfer which also makes for some unclarity).  Instead the agreement recites that it is:

In order to contract for the support of the spouse of Dr. Kent Hovind and to incorporate such support into his intellectual property right agreement.

I haven’t reached out to my legal brain trust on this one because I think it would exhaust their patience with me.  I am falling back on my long ago study of business law about what constitutes a contract.  Cindi and Ernie Land on behalf of CSE Inc signed the agreement.

So CSE is agreeing to pay money that it owes Kent Hovind to Kent Hovind’s spouse, Hovind not having signed the agreement.  And the consideration of Hovind’s spouse to CSE was?  That’s the question for the exam.  Remember CSEM is what Cindi is supporting

At any rate after Cindi left DAL the monthly payments stopped.  The reasoning is that she is no longer Kent’s spouse.  If you are willing to sacrifice an hour of lifespan that you will never get back, you can follow a discussion of this issue among the principals, that Atheist Jr has provided to his viewers.

Some Feedback

I reached out to Bill Sardi, a longtime CSEM trustee.  He wrote:

I serve on the CSE board and I have had numerous telephone conversations with Cindi Lincoln as to how to resolve her claim that CSE and/or Kent Hovind owes her $133,000.  That claim will be settled in court later in the month as Ms. Lincoln would not accept a settlement offer or compromise that I had suggested.  The details I will not comment on till after the hearing at the end of the month.

The hearing tomorrow is over an assertion Kent Hovind body slammed Cindi Lincoln.  From what evidence I have available to me as a board member, I am not convinced that ever happened, but certainly there was some sort of attempt by Ms. Lincoln to grab Mr. Hovind’s cell phone as he was audio taping her while she was screaming and cussing, the audio tape which will be played in court tomorrow, I understand.

I asked Kent Hovind since October repeatedly to please pay half my medical bills; that I would take half of the responsibility because I was yelling and screaming at him; but if he would please help me pay half and confess to the truth at least to me as husband and wife; he continued to lie and say that he never bodyslammed me, that I tripped on the rug.

 I knew was he was a public figure; and it was the only time he had ever physically hurt me; and so I was going to protect my husband. All I wanted was for him to tell me the truth between him and I only and help me pay the medical bill. He refused to do either and went public on campus and on YouTube telling everybody I was lying and that I had to pay all the medical bills myself.

I am hoping I do get my medical bills reimbursed. I am also on a protective order due to the ongoing fear involving other matters as well. If Kent Hovind needs to go to jail, then he needs to go to jail. He did bodyslam me and now I realize there was a much larger scheme he was executing against me. He was intentionally trying to provoke me to rage so that he could use it to tell other people that I was bipolar, mentally unstable, needed to be on meds, and possessed by demons. That way my witness of his misconduct and cover-up at dinosaur adventure land would be discredited. Videos coming soon on my YouTube channel for more evidence of that.

More To The Story

I don’t feel I am in a position to comment on all the exciting things that are going on at DAL including what motivated Cindi Lincoln to leave.  I just thought the financial piece, which is rather curious deserved a little attention.  For the most up to the minute information nothing competes with Kent Hovind’s Worst Nightmare – Robert Baty.  If you search “Kent Hovind” on Youtube and filter for past week, you will be able to find a lot more video about this than I would ever watch.

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I have decided that this story would be too far out of lane for Forbes.com.  I would greatly appreciate your comments.  I apologize for having to put an approval process in effect, but the level of spam that would otherwise be there makes it necessary.