235. An Interview with Kate Casey of Reality Life

He's built this web that seems impossible to get out of, and, you know, this is supposed to be my expertise, but I feel like you can shed better light on this.

So you started out with saying that this interested you because you've always been fascinated with, like, the Free Church, because of the authority that is incredibly insular, that can cause or at least be an incubator for illegality.

So the interesting thing about this is, there are police and lawyers and restraining orders and, and divorce papers, you know.

Like, the legal system is touching upon this story.

But somehow, despite the legal system being part of this story, you're right It is insulated from anything breaking down really the pastor's authority, or as we know, his ultimate grip on Micah.

It doesn't end well for her.

She never gets away.

Her life is ended.

And so this is a bigger commentary on what you said about these types of institutions that are institutions of one.

They're usually not institutions of multiple free churches that are all connected.

Usually, it's going to be kind of this one type of community.

How? How does one individual build this type of power that is able to exist within our legal system? So we're not talking about sovereign citizens who, who declare with a flag, you know, "No, we don't belong to the US government," or something like that.

They proclaim actually to be very much part of the community, they're helping the community, but are able to get away with these things that, in your words, are incredibly illegal and dangerous.

Well, you see it, too, where he keeps saying, "But she's my wife," and then the officers are sort of like, "Well, that's a..." Most people don't wanna get into a domestic situation.

We're told, like, "You gotta be careful.

It could be, you know, dangerous," especially if it's like, oh, he's this sweet pastor with a sweet wife.

Like, they're the last people that you would think that would be in a situation where, in fact, this is a relationship that contains, like, surveillance and humiliation and financial pressure and threats and reputational destruction.

It's all happening within their own marriage.

But somehow, authority looks away because they are being told, "Oh, it- it's my wife.

This is just sort of our business," on top of the fact that he is part of a church.

And I just think people have a hard time imagining, in the United States of America, that a pastor could be abusing his wife.

And he knows that, and he uses that to his advantage.

And you really put your finger on something that's really scary here, and there is a proposed law to address this, but obviously near the end of her life, they are separated.

She's living with someone else, but legally they are still married.

And right before she dies, she serves him with divorce papers, two days, in fact, and a restraining order, which details, in a public record, all of his, I mean, horrendous abuses, which are, again, not just with her, but there are third parties involved.