Former Tampa pastor seeks to sell assets from failed marriage
By JEFF TESTERMAN
Published October 25, 2003
TAMPA - A new battle for marital assets involving Living Water Church of Tampa co-founders Ronald and Belinda Clark - this one involving $92,000 worth of livestock, farm machinery and artwork - has spilled over from divorce court into bankruptcy court.
Former Living Water pastor Ronald Clark, who asked for bankruptcy protection from creditors in July, has now asked the court for authority to sell six horses, two cows, saddles, grooming equipment, a horse trailer, a 1972 tractor and some paintings.
Clark says the sale is part of a "downsizing" effort to help him reorganize his business.
Mrs. Clark has asked the bankruptcy court not to rule on the request to sell assets.
She says her husband has no real business to reorganize now that he has gone to work as a $60,000-a-year salaried employee of a nondenominational Illinois church called Family Harvest Church. Mrs. Clark says in court papers that her husband's request to sell assets from the couple's Dade City horse farm is "forum shopping" intended to get something in bankruptcy court that he should seek instead in the ongoing divorce case.
She says the horses Ronald Clark seeks to sell are used by her children, particularly her 13-year-old daughter. This isn't the first time the Clarks' divorce case has blurred with bankruptcy matters.
The Living Water Church, located east of Tampa on Interstate 4, filed its own Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition on Oct. 1, listing $4.7-million in assets and $3.4-million in liabilities. Church attorneys say that the church's bankruptcy case should be the venue for a claim by Mrs. Clark that the church property is a marital asset that should be divided with her.
That claim, made initially in the Clarks' Pasco County divorce case, stems from Mrs. Clark's contention that Ronald Clark controlled the Living Water Church as his "alter-ego," and that he had a secret plan to sell the church, place the proceeds in a trust and have the proceeds funneled to him at some foreign ministry.
- Times staff writer Chase Squires contributed to this report. Jeff Testerman can be reached at 813 226-3422 or by e-mail at testerman@sptimes.com
