By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Thursday, August 28, 2025

Self-styled “apostle,” David E. Taylor was arrested by federal authorities Wednesday along with his organization’s executive director, Michelle Brannon.

A press release from the Department of Justice said Brannon, 56, and Taylor, 53, were arrested for their alleged roles in a forced labor and money laundering conspiracy following the return of a 10-count indictment by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Taylor, whose Joshua Media Ministries International runs the Kingdom of God Global Church in Michigan, is expected to appear in court in Durham, North Carolina, on Wednesday to answer to the charges, while Brannon will appear in Tampa, Florida.

Collectively, they are accused of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Their operation is alleged to have left behind victims in Michigan, Florida, Texas and Missouri, including women who were forced to take the emergency contraception drug Plan B.

“Combating human trafficking is a top priority for the Department of Justice,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement announcing the arrests. “We are committed to relentlessly pursuing and ending this scourge and obtaining justice for the victims.”

“We will use every lawful tool against human traffickers and seek justice for their victims,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. for the Eastern District of Michigan added. “A case like this is only possible through a concerted effort with our federal partners across the country and the non-governmental agencies who provide victim support. We thank them all.”

Taylor’s ministry reportedly ran call centers that solicited donations every day in Taylor, Michigan, and other states, including Florida, Texas and Missouri. Victims were allegedly forced to work at the call centers as Taylor’s “armor bearers.”

“Armor bearers were Taylor's personal servants who fulfilled Taylor’s demands around the clock. Taylor and Brannon controlled every aspect of the daily living of their victims. Victims slept in the call center facility or in a ‘ministry’ house, and Taylor and Brannon did not permit them to leave without permission,” the DOJ said in their release.

“Taylor demanded that his Armor Bearers transport women from ministry houses, airports, and other locations to Taylor’s location and ensured the women transported to Taylor took Plan B emergency contraceptives.”

The self-styled apostle and his executive director are also accused of setting “unobtainable” fundraising goals for the armor bearers at the call centers and would punish them when they failed to achieve them.

“Taylor and Brannon punished the victims with public humiliation, additional work, food and shelter restrictions, psychological abuse, forced repentance, sleep deprivation, physical assaults, and threats of divine judgment in the form of sickness, accidents, and eternal damnation,” the DOJ said.

Taylor, who has previously been accused of corruption, purchased an $8.3 million mansion in Tampa, Florida, from Tampa Bay Buccaneers co-owner Darcie Glazer Kassewitz and her husband in 2022.

The mansion, which has a 28,893-square-foot main house and a 2,620-square-foot guest house, was purchased with a $4.9 million mortgage from Miami Beach-based Crosby Capital.

In 2019, Taylor’s ex-wife, Tabitha Taylor, alleged that he engaged in multiple extramarital affairs during their relationship and got her pregnant before they were married.

Speaking out in a broadcast on Facebook Live, Tabitha explained that she decided to speak up to warn the Church against the abusive and manipulative behavior of pastors operating contrary to Scripture.

"We're teaching people that it's OK to sin. We're teaching people that it's OK to live unrighteously, but God is gonna bring judgment to the household of God. He is. He's gonna judge us if we don't get it together, people of God.

"We're preaching in the pulpit and we're sleeping with our members,” she continued. “We're preaching in the pulpit and we're abusing the sheep. We're preaching in the pulpit and we're not doing right by the people of God. We're not walking in love. We're destroying people's marriages; we're destroying people's homes, and God is not pleased.”

Taylor, who once claimed he raised a woman from the dead, was deposed in a Michigan court in 2016 for financial corruption. In the deposition, he pretended “to be confused by the attorney's questions,” and made “pitiful excuses for his frivolous purchases."