A former Southern Baptist seminary official said Wednesday, “my integrity is everything” and that he is not guilty of federal obstruction of justice charges related to a sexual abuse case at the school’s undergraduate college.

Matthew Queen, a former interim provost at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was indicted Tuesday by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York on charges related to a 2023 case involving a student at the seminary’s undergraduate college who was arrested on charges of felony sexual assault. If convicted, Mr. Queen could face a 20-year prison sentence, prosecutors said.

Mr. Queen is accused of lying about his involvement in a meeting at the seminary in which an employee was ordered to destroy a November 2022 document describing allegations of sexual abuse. Prosecutors claim Mr. Queen “falsely stated” that he did not hear that instruction, and that he later provided “contemporaneous notes” that omitted the alleged instruction.

Mr. Queen, now a senior pastor at Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, acknowledged attending the meeting.

“During my employment at the seminary, I was present during a conversation of interest to investigators and was interviewed about my recollection of that conversation,” he said in a statement. “Prosecutors believe I misrepresented that conversation, and my notes about my recollection of that conversation, during my interview with them and indicted me.”

He said, “I fully cooperated with this investigation and have pleaded not guilty to the charge against me. As a Christian, a (former) seminary professor, and now a pastor, my integrity is everything to me and I will cling to that integrity and seek to be vindicated by God and man.”

New York defense attorney Sam A. Schmidt, who represents Mr. Queen, said in a statement his client “was unaware of the allegation made against the student in November 2022 until … after the arrest of the student by the Burleson [Texas] Police Department.”

The then-provost “has never seen the contents of the document,” Mr. Schmidt said, and only learned about its “general nature … at a later time.” 

The attorney said the “notes prepared by Dr. Queen cited in the [federal] accusation were true to his best recollection and did not contain false information.” He said the academic gave truthful testimony to the federal grand jury.

Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, began an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention in 2022, looking into a reported coverup of hundreds of sexual abuse cases at churches, schools and seminaries in the 12.9 million-member denomination. 

Via email, a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary spokesman said the school had no comment on the statements from Mr. Queen or his attorney. Earlier, the school said it “has and will continue to cooperate fully with the [Justice Department] in its investigation of sexual abuse,”

• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.