By Scott Buttram
Youth evangelist Matt Pitt will spend at least three more weeks in the Shelby County Jail after Circuit Court Judge Dan Reaves pushed his hearing date back to Oct. 15 at the request of prosecutors, according to court documents.
No reason was given for the delay.
Pitt’s hearing had originally been scheduled for Sept. 24, but was moved up one day to Sept. 23 after his attorney, Daniel Boman, filed a motion requesting that Pitt’s probation from a 2011 arrest be reinstated and that he be released with electronic monitoring.
The move comes just days after Pitt supporters launched a new website called freepitt.com, which questions timelines in the 2012 Calera arrest.
Vince Lovell of The Basement ministry has also sent emails to The Trussville Tribune with statements from two Basement associates claiming to have been in a vehicle in front of Pitt and WDJC radio personality Ty Wilkerson at the time of his Calera arrest. In the statement provided, both people say they never saw Pitt turn on blue lights in his vehicle prior to being stopped by Calera police.
The emails were sent while Pitt was under investigation by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for an alleged incident of impersonating a peace officer in Grayson Valley for which he was subsequently charged.
Pitt was jailed in Shelby County pending a hearing on possible parole violations after the warrant for his arrest was issued in Jefferson County for allegedly impersonating a peace officer in August. In 2012, Pitt pleaded guilty to similar charges stemming from the 2012 arrest in Calera.
Despite his guilty plea, Pitt now says he was not guilty in the 2012 arrest, telling NBC 13 reporter Kalisha Whitman he wasn’t guilty, but had to plead guilty, claiming his attorney didn’t show up for court. That claim has been disputed by attorney Orson Johnson in an interview with Kent Faulk of The Birmingham News.
According to Faulk, Johnson said he was in court and explained Pitt’s rights to him. Faulk also reported that court documents showed signatures of Pitt, Johnson, Reaves and Shelby County prosecutor Robbie Owens.
At the time of his current incarceration in Shelby County, Judge Reaves ordered Pitt to undergo a drug test. The results of that test are believed to have been received by the court, but are under seal and have not been revealed to the public. It is not known at this time if Reaves will make the results public at the hearing.
Matt Pitt was arrested last month in Jefferson County.
Photo from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office
