The North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara has been fined $15,000 — the largest coronavirus-related fines levied so far in Santa Clara County — for holding indoor services in violation of the county health order.
The county issued the De La Cruz Boulevard church two $5,000 fines last Sunday for violations during indoor morning and evening services.
On Wednesday evening, North Valley Baptist held another in-person service — and was issued another $5,000 fine.
“It appears for the moment that the fines have not stopped them from continuing the gatherings, and we’ll be looking at what other options we might have to take,” said County Counsel James Williams, who declined to comment on what the further penalties may be.
The fines follow “several complaints and several requests to have the church be in compliance,” Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Angela Alvarado told the Mercury News.
On Friday, two days before the fines were issued, the county counsel’s office posted a cease-and-desist letter on the church’s door that said that North Valley Baptist was in violation of the health order for holding indoor services, failing to ensure mask wearing and social distancing indoors, singing during services and failing to submit a social distancing protocol.
“North Valley Baptist’s violations are clear, repeated and unacceptable, and they endanger the health and safety of our community,” Williams and Deputy County Counsel Jeremy Avila wrote in the letter.
The $5,000 fine per service is the highest possible fine for business violations of the coronavirus health order permitted under the ordinance Santa Clara County adopted earlier this month. For the most part, Williams said, the county has avoided issuing fines in favor of working with businesses to bring them into compliance. Santa Clara County issued the highest possible fine to North Valley Baptist because of the number of violations and the level of risk caused by a large indoor gathering.
“There just doesn’t seem to be recognition on the part of the congregation that they need to follow the law and that they’re contributing to harm in the community by holding an illegal gathering and doing so in willful defiance of the law,” Williams said.
North Valley Baptist Church declined to comment.
The letter based its account of the violations on anonymous complaints, North Valley Baptist’s own admissions and a review of the church’s website and social media.
“The facts are not in dispute,” Williams said. “I don’t think the church is disputing that they held an illegal indoor gathering. i don’t think they can dispute that one. They’re proclaiming it.”
In a video statement issued Monday by the church, North Valley Baptist Church pastor Jack Trieber did dispute the social distancing charge, saying that every other pew was left empty and that parishioners stayed six feet apart, but videos of the Sunday morning service and evening service on social media show members of the choir singing while standing less than six feet apart. Trieber acknowledged that not all parishioners wore masks during the service.
“We have the right to worship, and more than a right from the constitution, we have a right from God,” Trieber said.
Trieber says that the church shut down in March, but doesn’t specify when it resumed holding indoor services, saying instead that North Valley Baptist reopened because Santa Clara County was “not a hot spot.”
“We found out that there are not 5,000, or 2,500 people that have died in our area of 2.1 million,” Trieber said on Monday. “We’ve not had 1000 people perish, or 900 or 800 or 700 or 500. We’ve not had 400 people perish. We’ve not even had 300 people perish. And by the way, one life, we know that, is valuable. We’ve had to this day 224 people pass away; 90 plus were in rest homes.”
The virus is real, Trieber said, but “there’s not a pandemic here.”
Trieber’s wife, Cindie Trieber, also downplayed the dangers of COVID-19 in an email she sent to the church congregation last Saturday, even as she wrote that “My thought is exactly as I have read; “ if I perish, I perish!””
“Take your supplements, and keep your immune system in good working order,” Cindie wrote. “You can survive Covid! It is not a death sentence.”
If parishioners do contract COVID-19, she urged them to keep quiet about it.
“By the way, should you get Covid, the less you talk about it, the better off EVERYONE will be!” she continued. “Doctors will ask you questions, shake their heads, and then turn in their “report” to the county.”
Ultimately, Cindie urged parishioners to come to services on Sunday despite the cease and desist letter.
“It will be an exciting day at NVBC tomorrow!” she wrote. “See you there!”
