Pastor Allegedly Forced Young Women to Detail ‘Sexual Sins,’ Ex-Followers Say

Inside the Montana ministry with a burger chain led by a pottery-spinning pastor, accused of abusing and swindling his flock.

Pilar Melendez
Reporter
Updated 09.03.19 10:33AM ET / Published 09.02.19 5:20AM ET

Dawn Marie Grice said she fled an abusive home in Southern California when she heard about a place that offered her salvation in Montana, Potter’s Field Ministry.

The evangelical Christian ranch on 80 acres in picturesque Whitefish boasted an internship to work and learn alongside the ministry’s co-founders, Michael and Pam Rozell. Grice, who was 20, signed up immediately.

In 2000, after three months of performing administrative tasks for the ministry, she was promoted to being Michael’s personal assistant—a job she held for 11 years that she equated with “being another form of Michael Rozell.”

Soon into her new role though, Michael started to scream over the smallest inconveniences, usually for hours. The alleged abuse would sometimes even take a sexual turn, according to Grice.

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“I’ve heard he also asked several girls if they ever struggled with sexual sin,” she added. “According to Michael, sexual sin was masturbating or watching porn and he apparently would force girls to talk about it in detail for hours.”

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