Judge quashes city's lawsuit against Ohio pastor running church homeless ministry

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Friday, April 03, 2026

A judge has permanently dismissed an Ohio city’s lawsuit against a pastor who ran a 24/7 homeless ministry at his church property.

Judge James D. Bates of the Court of Common Pleas of Williams County issued a final order earlier this week in the case of Fire Chief Douglas Pool, City of Bryan Fire Department v. Dad's Place and Riehle Rentals, LLC.

At issue was the homeless ministry that Pastor Chris Avell offered at Dad’s Place in Bryan, which city officials charged was violating several zoning and building requirements.

This included a demand from Bryan Fire Chief Douglas Pool to have the church install a sprinkler system, even though the church could not afford such an exorbitant expense.

In his order, Bates wrote that Bryan Fire Chief Douglas Pool “has not identified a specific interest here that would justify shutting down Dad's Place because it lacks a sprinkler system” and that “his decision to wait years before enforcing the fire code confirms that no such interest exists.”

“Pool has also failed to prove that the City's fire-code enforcement against Dad's Place is the least restrictive means of achieving the City's interests,” Bates continued. “Here, there are multiple alternatives to forcing the Church to shut down its ministry for lack of a sprinkler system, any one of which is fatal to Chief Pool's case under strict scrutiny.”

The order explained that an “injunction would inflict irreparable harm on the Church by shutting down its ministry” and that the “balance of harms therefore tips decidedly against the injunction.”

“Chief Pool has failed to prove that the public interest would be advanced by the issuance of a permanent injunction enjoining Dad's Place from continuing to live out its faith by serving the vulnerable population of Bryan,” Bates added.

The complaint against the church was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled, and the lawsuit is permanently concluded.

Jeremy Dys, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, which helped to represent the church, said in a statement released Thursday that the ruling “should put an end once and for all to the city’s relentless attacks on Dad’s Place and Pastor Chris.”

“All Pastor Chris ever wanted to do was keep the doors of his church open to those in desperate need of temporary shelter,” Dys continued. “It’s past time for the city to end its mean-spirited, three-year campaign of harassment of this church.”

In 2023, Avell launched the 24/7 ministry to the homeless at his church. Months later, Bryan city officials filed 18 criminal charges against the church over building code issues.

Although officials agreed to drop the charges in exchange for Dad’s Place actively working to get the necessary certifications and permits, the church faced additional criminal charges after the city fire chief conducted a surprise inspection in April 2024.

In January of last year, a Bryan Municipal Court Judge ordered Avell to pay a $200 fine and gave him a 60-day suspended jail sentence. However, the Sixth Appellate District on the Court of Appeals of Ohio stayed the sentence.