Michael Tait Accused of Drugging Woman, Watching Her Get Sexually Assaulted (Video)
According to an investigative report by music journalist Jessica Morris published at The Roys Report (TRR), a woman claims that former Newsboys lead singer Michael Tait drugged her drink and watched as she was raped by Newsboys lighting technician Matthew Brewer. TRR obtained video footage and a police report related to the alleged incident.
Tait has previously admitted to drug use and “unwanted sexual contact” with young men, and has been accused of drugging a minor to sexually assault him, with further allegations that he exposed his penis to a 13-year-old sexually.
The woman, referred to as “Nicole” (not her real name), was working for Pulse Evangelism during the Newsboys’ 2014 tour. She found herself at the same hotel as the Newsboys crew, which included guitar tech Jack Campbell, tour manager Steve Campbell, lighting apprentice Zech Germenis, Michael Tait, and Matthew Brewer.
While drinking at the hotel bar, she recounts that Tait invited her to down a shot with him, which she did. While she believed it to be harmless, it would be the last thing she remembered.
Nicole began feeling woozy. TRR-obtained footage shows her stumbling to her hotel room, unable to enter, as Brewer watched. She eventually went to Brewer’s room, where, after a few minutes, Tait appeared at the door. Brewer stepped out, and the two spoke in whispers with Tait stroking Brewer’s chest and grabbing Brewer’s crotch. Tait then entered the room with them.
A few minutes later, Tait left and returned with Jack Campbell, who entered the room but left after just six seconds, appearing to flee from the place.
Meanwhile, Nicole’s friends, musicians Jesi Jones and Elizabeth Chan, grew concerned and enlisted Germenis to help find her. They learned she was in Brewer’s room.
Germenis chose to help the women and knocked on Brewer’s door at 2:16 a.m. Video footage shows Brewer peering out of a dark room to speak to Germenis, then quickly shutting the door. Brewer is shirtless and only wears jean
Germenis told TRR, “(I saw) his half-drunk face open the door and (he) was like, ‘What’s up?’ I was like, ‘Hey, have you seen (Nicole)?’ And he said something like, ‘No, I haven’t seen her.’”
Germenis told the two women that Brewer said Nicole was downstairs with John Burch.
Hearing this, Chan left to search for her downstairs, while Germenis walked to the stairwell and spoke to Campbell, who was processing what he saw in Brewer’s room.
“He was like, ‘I saw Tait basically watching them have sex,’ or something like that,’” Germenis recalls.
So, I (said), ‘Are you scared? Tait’s in there right now,’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah . . . it was the worst thing ever.’ And we basically just sat there. We were just kind of like in disbelief. Like, what in the heck is happening right now? How are we in the middle of this?”
Nicole eventually left Brewer’s room, walked down the hallway, and collapsed in front of her own door, blacked out with her pants unzipped.
The next morning, Chan spoke to Jack Campbell, the witness, about what he had seen, but Campbell allegedly said he had been told not to talk about it.
Chan then informed her line manager, Matt Best, about what had happened to Nicole. He took her to the hospital to get a rape kit, toxicology test, and Plan B as an emergency contraceptive. Nicole took the Plan B but declined the rape kit and toxicology test, a decision she later regretted as it could have confirmed whether she was drugged.
Nicole claims Tait later confronted her and apologized, going “on and on and on about, ‘You’re my sister in Christ and I’m so sorry,’”
“In my head I’m thinking, did he help feed the (rape)? Did he initiate? (I thought) that something (was put) in my drink because I was not talking to Matt Brewer, so how did Matt and I somehow get to a room?”
What she heard next shook her. “He said, ‘I’m a grown man who tours and sometimes I just have these urges and we all sin.’ (He said) ‘We all make mistakes, and I’ve prayed, and I’ve asked for forgiveness.’”
Chan also alleges that Tait approached her to make amends, saying, “I had a moment of weakness. I should have done the right thing. I did not touch her, but I was in the room and I watched. Of course, I was turned on.”
Later, Nicole filed a police report obtained by TRR, which says in part:
And:
Best arranged a meeting with tour manager Steve Campbell, who allegedly dismissed the incident, saying, “Kids will be kids,” while showing little concern that anything serious had occurred. A 2014 whistleblower email obtained by Protestia alleges that Steve Campbell covered up several scandalous incidents involving Tait and was fully aware of what he was doing.
Steve Campbell denies making the statement or covering anything up. Similarly, Matthew Brewer said through his lawyers that he was shocked by the accusation of sexual assault and insisted any interaction between him and Nicole was consensual.
Following the incident, Nicole left the tour.
Pulse Evangelism completed the tour but never worked with the Newsboys again.
Brewer continued working with the Newsboys for nearly another decade.
To read the full report with more detail, click here.
Absolutely sickening…