Authenticates Imprisoned Cleric’s Bible School : Letter May Aid Minister in South Korea

An attorney for an Orange County minister imprisoned in South Korea said she will fly there Saturday with a letter that may persuade authorities to drop criminal fraud charges against her client.

The attorney, Lorene Lynn Mies, said she has “an understanding” with South Korean policethat if she can prove that the Rev. Dale Spencer Davis’ Bible school in Buena Park was operating legally and that Davis came to South Korea “with the intention of doing good,” he will be deported and will not be sent to prison.

Davis, president of the Harvest Bible Institute and Theological Seminary and a member of the Westminster Church of God, has been held in South Korea since Dec. 24. Mies said that Davis, while in South Korea, awarded 67 diplomas from the institute and did not realize that the recipients had paid $37,500 (30 million won) for them.

Mies said Davis believed a Korean minister who said the 67 Koreans met the requirements of the Harvest Institute diplomas. Possession of a diploma from a U.S. school would help South Koreans wishing to emigrate, Mies said.

An attempt by Davis to prove to South Korean police that he did not come to the country with the intention of selling diplomas was foiled when South Korean officials in Los Angeles were unable to obtain information on the Harvest Institute from California Department of Education officials, Mies said.

“The Harvest Center, being a religious institution, is not under the Department of Education because of separation of church and state,” Mies said. The Harvest Center, although currently not operating, is accredited by the Missouri-based International Accreditating Commission, she said.

William Unger, a state education official, said Wednesday that he wrote Mies a letter to take to South Korean authorities indicating “the operation is legal.” He added that the Department of Education keeps no records on organizations such as the Harvest Institute and that any inquiries “would have gotten a negative response.”