A new lawsuit alleges that Triumph Church and its pastor, the Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr., who is a candidate for Detroit mayor, violated state and federal laws after the church purchased the former AMC Star Southfield theater site in Southfield.
The church later conveyed that property to a private limited liability company “controlled exclusively” by Kinloch, according to the lawsuit filed by Highland Park activist Robert Davis in Oakland County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Davis is asking a judge to force the Oakland County Register of Deeds and Equalization Department to release unredacted public records related to the property in Southfield. Davis contends those records, which the county refused to disclose without redactions, could shed light on whether Triumph Church or Kinloch violated state and federal laws.
The county redacted the purchase price and transfer tax.
“This lawsuit is necessary to expose the full extent of what I believe to be unlawful conduct by Triumph Church and its senior pastor, Solomon Kinloch Jr.,” Davis wrote in the complaint.
Federal law prohibits religious nonprofits from using tax-exempt resources to enrich insiders. Michigan’s Nonprofit Corporations Act also requires nonprofit officers to act in the best interests of the organizations and avoid conflicts of interest.
Related story
Mayoral candidate Kinloch’s megachurch owes Detroit nearly $30K in delinquent water bills
Detroit mayoral candidate Solomon Kinloch’s megachurch owes nearly $30,000 in…
Triumph Church, which has more than 40,000 members and seven locations, including two in Detroit with long-delinquent water bills, bought the theater location in 2024, according to real estate records. Two years earlier, Kinloch said Triumph was trying to purchase the property to convert into a church, community space, and a resource center for people in need, Crain’s Detroit reported in 2022. Kinloch said construction would begin in 2023 and take about 18 to 24 months to finish.
For unknown reasons, that never happened. It’s also unclear why the church would convey the property to an LLC, which would be required to pay taxes.
Triumph Church declined to answer specific questions about the purchase, including how much the church paid for the property and why it was conveyed to Kinloch. The church also would not say how much Kinloch’s LLC paid Triumph for the property.
“We have no response to the continued false allegations and frivolous actions of Robert Davis,” Triumph Church’s Chief of Staff Ralph Godbee, the former Detroit police chief, said in a statement to Metro Times. “They are meritless and simply not true.”
The site has been vacant since AMC shut down the theater during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
According to the complaint, Davis filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking deeds, purchase documents, and property tax records from Oakland County, but the county’s Register of Deeds and Equalization Department refused to release the information. He is now asking the court to order the release of those records.
“The requested documents will demonstrate whether Triumph Church’s property purchase was lawful and consistent with its tax-exempt purpose,” the lawsuit states.
Federal law prohibits religious nonprofits from using tax-exempt resources to enrich insiders. And the Michigan’s Nonprofit Corporation Act requires nonprofit officers to act in the best interests of the organization and avoid conflicts of interest.
Kinloch, who finished second in Detroit’s August mayoral primary, will face City Council President Mary Sheffield in the November general election. He has made his leadership of Triumph Church a central theme of his campaign.
But his mayoral run has also shed some unwanted light on Kinloch and his church. Triumph’s two Detroit churches recently owed nearly $30,000 in delinquent water bills.
Davis has also filed county, state, and federal complaints against the church and Kinloch over his $1.3 million home in Oakland Township. Triumph Church bought the 5,177-square-foot house in April 2013 for $841,600, financing the purchase with a $631,200 mortgage, which Kinloch signed on behalf of the church, according to the deed and mortgage records. That left roughly $210,000 to be covered in cash.
Nine months later, in January 2014, the church sold the property to Kinloch for the same price, and he also financed his purchase with a $631,200 mortgage, leaving $210,000 to be paid in advance, according to deeds and mortgage records. Triumph Church officials declined to say who paid the remaining $210,000 when Kinloch acquired the house.
In late July, the Detroit Free Press reported that Kinloch pleaded guilty to assaulting his first wife after threatening her with a butcher knife and beating her with its handle, according to police.
Kinloch has also faced questions about residency. For most of the past three decades, Kinloch has lived in Oakland County. In March 2024, he registered to vote in Detroit and moved into a downtown condo with his brother, Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch. He said he later relocated to another apartment in the same complex in the Greektown area.
In the latest case, Davis contends Triumph Church is trying to keep the property records from being disclosed.
“Triumph Church is seeking to keep the purchase price a secret because they fraudulently conveyed this property” to an LLC controlled by Kinloch, Davis said. Metro Times could not immediately reach Oakland County officials for comment.
Related story
Sheffield dominates Detroit mayoral primary and will face Kinloch in November
Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield and Rev. Solomon Kinloch…