Cindi Lincoln, third wife of young earth creationist preacher Kent Hovind, is suing Hovind consigliere Ernie Land, Kent Hovind, himself, and various entities about financial commitments made to her in exchange for support of Hovind’s Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL) in Lenox Al. I have not been covering many of the developments in the Hovind story that engage what second wife Mary Tocco calls “the obsessed party of internet fanatics who invest an impractical amount of time and focus, dedicated to revealing to the world their perception of Kent as a fraud and con-artist”.  I find the financial aspects of this case of some interest though and there may even be some good lessons in here.

About Kent Hovind

Kent Hovind is an independent Baptist minister and an advocate of Young Earth Creationism (YEC). YEC is the notion that you can arrive at the age of the Earth (and the whole physical universe) by summing up those begats in the Bible to get to a point where chronology is pretty uncontroversial. It works out to around 6,000 years as opposed to conventional science which puts Earth between four and five billion years old and the universe between 13 and 14 billion.

6,000 years is not nearly enough time for evolution to work and it also implies that dinosaurs and humans coexisted – hence Kent Hovind’s sobriquet “Doc Dino” and the theme parks named Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL) – the first in Pensacola and the current one in Lenox, Alabama.

Hovind’s long federal sentence was the result of the way the Pensacola DAL was operated using a “non-statutory trust” Creation Science Evangelism, which ended up being considered an alter ego of Kent and his then wife Jo, who received a shorter sentence. She divorced him not very long after his release from prison in 2015.

The new DAL is much more conventional in structure. The property is owned and operated by Creation Science Ministries Inc a 501(c)(3) organization that is recognized by the IRS as a church. A for profit S Corporation owned by Ernie Land, Kent’s consigliere of a sort, runs the store and pays Kent for the use of his intellectual property. Mary Tocco, Kent’s second wife, maintains that the new DAL in practice runs much as the old one did with no actual accountability on Kent’s part.

About Cindi Lincoln

Cindi Lincoln was running a day care in California.  She had advertised the school as being Christian, but you know how people don’t pay attention.  One of the parents complained about Cindi teaching the kids about God since it was all just fables.  She thought it would be wonderful if there were scientific proof that the Bible was true.  She found it in the work of Kent Hovind lapping up his video material.  Then she heard Kent say on Youtube that he was looking for landscaping help at the new DAL,  She visited for three weeks and loved it there.  So she moved in as a full time volunteer selling most of her possessions, but keeping her home in California as a rental property.

Cindi’s first term at DAL began around the time that Kent married  Mary Tocco in September 2016,  She and Mary became friends, something that appears to have persisted as they became part of the ex-wives club.  The long suffering Jo Hovind who has Kent to thank for a year in federal prison has not been heard from in public.  There are plenty of Youtube videos to choose from to come up to speed on the controversy.  This one hosted by Michael Jones of Inspiring Philosophy features both Cindi and Mary.

Mary Tocco from her own experience as an activist had a grasp on conventional notions of not for profit governance and management. The new CSE despite its conventional structure compared to the old CSE was not up to snuff as far as she was concerned. By her account Kent and Ernie Land were not interested in her views.  She left after nine months in July 2017 not wanting to be the second Mrs. Hovind to be imprisoned. Cindi left around the same time.

Cindi stayed in the area and kept in touch.  She heard that the IRS had been in and investigated CSE and everything was fine.  So she came back and before long romance bloomed.  On July 20, 2018 Cindi and Kent married without quite as much fanfare as Kent’s wedding with Mary Tocco in September of 2016.  A detail worth noting is that these two marriages and the marriage to Sandra Princess Sawyer in September of 2021 were in the “eyes of God” without license from the State of Alabama.  The State of Alabama changed the law on recognizing common law marriages on January 1, 2017, so it is not out of the question that Kent and Mary Tocco are still legally married.

Cindi’s Support For The Ministry

In her account, while a volunteer at the ministry Cindi paid for her own food and did not accept a stipend like the other 10-20 volunteers who lived on site.  She relied on the $2,000 in rental income from her California property.  In January 2019 she sold the California property intending to replace it with a number of Alabama properties.  She bought the first one on February 1, 2019 and rented it to Steve Lynn, the CSE “tech” guy for $700 per month. Over the next couple of months Cindi donated $90,000 to the ministry mainly by buying things for it.

Cindi did not intend to give everything to the ministry.  She hoped to recreate the $2,000 per month she had been getting from the California house with Alabama rental properties.  Then she came up with the notion of turning more over to the ministry in exchange for an annuity of $1,300 per month.  There was some back and forth and I find it a little confusing but the bottom line was an agreement of $1,300 per month for for 20 years in exchange for $130,000 that Cindi spent on the ministry as far as Cindi understood it. Originally the contract called for the $1,300 per month to be paid by allowing Cindi to use an American Express card.  After the card was cancelled there were some payments by check.

The contract indicated that it was for “spousal support” and did not recite the consideration that Cindi was providing. In April 2020 there began to be conflicts with Cindi being concerned about the leadership of CSE condoning drug use among some key people.  You can refer to the video if you want to get into that.

The Conflict

Kent and Cindi’s relationship deteriorated.  Finalizing the details of the arrangement was a factor, but disputes with the tenant tech guy where she felt Kent did not back her up was also a factor.  You can devote Youtube time into the he said she said of it if you would like.  The event that generated the most attention was the “body slam” incident which resulted in Kent’s being prosecuted. What the money deal is was the subject of a conference that was published on Youtube by AtheistJunior titled Kent Hovind & Miss Cindi Zoom Call Negotiation.  You get Cindi’s voice and on screen left to right are Paul Hansen, Brady Byrum, Ernie Land and Kent Hovind.  You also get the voice of an attorney they are consulting.

Paul Hansen was a trustee of the original CSE and was Kent’s codefendant in the 2015 trial which was about things being done to interfere with IRS disposing of property seized as a result of the 2006 conviction. Kent got off and Hansen ended up serving 18 months. Hansen was the brains behind Kent’s half billion dollar lawsuit in 2021.  Hansen live in a sort of alternate legal universe which he maintains really works at least usually. I spoke with him about this and he told me he believes that Cindi is genuinely owed a substantial sum.

Brady Byrum is the legal mind behind the Kent Hovind Is Innocent DVD series. I have not figured out how to contact Mr. Byrum.

Ernie Land wrote me about Cindi’s filing on the case last week. He wrote: “The filing is being rebutted as inaccurate, untruthful and with a very large countersuit”.  I called Kent Hovind asking him if he had anything to add.  At his request we exchanged texts.  His reply was “Not at this time”.

The Lessons

Cindi believes she has no alternative but to file pro se.  I have no way of evaluating the quality of her complaint or knowing how this is likely to play out and no insight into how thing go in the Conecuh County Court where the case was filed.  The lesson is probably to get legal advice up front, which is what Mary Tocco did.  Another lesson is to create clean transaction trails and work out the details of the transactions before entering into them.

Other Coverage

Here is a roundup of my coverage of the Hovind story since his release form prison in 2015.

I picked up the story from Robert Baty – Kent Hovind’s Worst Nightmare. Baty is probably chief among the “obsessed band of internet fanatics”.  He is one of the few, if not the only, critic that Kent will sometimes mention by name.

There is quite a bit on Cindi’s Youtube channel.

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Originally published on Forbes.com.

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