Rock Church, led by former NFL player Pastor Miles McPherson, has paid $3 million to settle a civil lawsuit stemming from the 2022 death of 11-year-old Arabella McCormack, who authorities say died from malnourishment and abuse. The civil lawsuit claimed that Rock Church, where for a time Arabella’s adoptive mother Leticia McCormack was an elder and volunteer, failed in its capacity as a mandatory reporter.
Also settling in the case are the city of San Diego for $10 million, San Diego County for $10 million, and Pacific Coast Academy for $8.5 million.
Arabella McCormack was the adopted daughter of Brian and Leticia McCormack. The couple began fostering Arabella and her two sisters in 2017 and adopted them in 2019. On Aug. 30, 2022, sheriff’s deputies responded to a 2 a.m. “call of a child in distress” at a home on Lakeview Drive in Spring Valley.
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Arabella, whose body showed signs of malnourishment and abuse, was rushed to the hospital, where she subsequently died. Law enforcement began an investigation, and in the course of that investigation, Brian McCormack took his own life in the presence of deputies.
Leticia McCormack and her parents, Adella and Stanley Tom, were arrested on Nov. 7, 2022, in connection with Arabella’s death and were charged with torture and willful cruelty to a child. Leticia McCormack and Stanley Tom were also charged with murder. All three defendants have pleaded not guilty, and their criminal case is ongoing.
Arabella’s sisters, whose names have not been revealed, were the plaintiffs in the civil case. One of their attorneys, Craig McClellan, confirmed to ChurchLeaders the above amounts of the settlement for each party, which total $31.5 million.
Rock Church Issues Statement on Settlement
Miles McPherson is a former NFL player who founded Rock Church in 2000; the church now has five campuses. Per a 2022 statement from Rock Church spokesperson Mei Ling Nazar to ChurchLeaders, Leticia McCormack began volunteering with the church in 2013. McCormack was an ordained elder, but in this role was not “responsible for church governance and/or operations.”
“The Rock no longer has any official relationship with Leticia,” said Nazar. “Her ordination at Rock Church was previously suspended and is in the process of being revoked.”
Speaking to the Rock Church congregation in November 2022, McPherson said the news about McCormack is “bewildering because there were so many background checks done.”
McCormack volunteered with law enforcement, as well as being a foster mother and church volunteer. She had therefore received background checks not only from law enforcement but also from Child Protective Services and Rock Church. “Nothing revealed that anything like this would happen, could happen,” said McPherson.
