Problems mount for Faith Haven founder

Faith Haven founder Wendy Johnston has become mired in more legal problems since her arrest and firing as head of a sober-living facility in Charleston earlier this month.

As Faith Haven residents were forced to leave the stately mansion they had called home, Johnston was hauled off to jail for allegedly forging her board president's name in the purchase of a Chevy Suburban in June. She spent four days behind bars before her $20,000 bail was posted on Oct. 13.

During her incarceration, Charleston County sheriff's deputies served Johnston with two outstanding warrants for check fraud, court records show.

Johnston, 42, was picked up again this week, and spent a night in the Berkeley County jail for missing a court date on another bad-check charge, said Dan Moon, public information officer for the Sheriff's Office. She was released Thursday afternoon after paying a fine, county officials said.

Meanwhile, Johnston's estranged husband, Peter, has filed for divorce and her landlord on Daniel Island is moving to evict her from the five-bedroom, 3,300-square-foot home on Blakeway Street where she lives with her four boys, court records show. Representatives of Azalea Property Management did not return phone calls this week seeking comment on the matter, but the company's Web site lists the home as available for $2,600 a month.

Johnston on Friday referred comment to her lawyer, Grady Query, who said he expects she will be vindicated when all of the facts come to light. He said they expect to show evidence that she had the board president's authority to sign for the vehicle purchase. As for her check fraud and eviction problems, Query said those seem to be fallout from "a bitter domestic situation."

The Azalea action marks the third eviction proceeding against Johnston on Daniel Island this year. She moved Faith Haven to a mansion near Colonial Lake in August after the group was evicted from an island condominium complex for non-payment of rent, according to her landlord and court documents.

Johnston also fell behind on the rent for the downtown Charleston property, a nearly 6,000-square-foot mansion on Rutledge Avenue. On Oct. 5, Faith Haven board President Charles Dukes fired Johnston, terminated the lease and dissolved the corporation, according to state records and the property owner.

Johnston, a former car dealer facing judgments of more than $500,000 for unpaid debts, founded Faith Haven late last year. She had no experience running a home for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. Johnston told The Post and Courier earlier this month that her life experiences moved her to start the home and that she was on a mission to save lives.

The Mengedoht family, which owns the $2.5 million Rutledge Avenue mansion, said the family decided to lease the home to Faith Haven because members thought they were helping a good cause. Neighbors, however, soon complained about noise, disruptions and a lack of supervision at the home.

Former residents of the home said Faith Haven offered little in the way of counseling or other assistance and the operation always seemed short on money and supplies. They were left to fend for themselves after Johnston was ousted and the house manager walked off the job.

The last seven residents left the home on Oct. 10 after being told to leave by Dukes and the property owner. Some went to stay with friends or family, while others found space in a sober-living facility in Santee.

One woman, however, returned to the woods where she had been living in North Charleston, unable to cope with the stress of being uprooted from the sober-living home, said Judy Wilson, a bank worker who initially gave the woman shelter after she was forced out of Faith Haven. The woman had been clean five months at that point after years of substance abuse.

"It's heartbreaking," Wilson said. "The whole time she was there at Faith Haven she was never given the tools she needed to help her step back into society. They just pulled the rug out from under her."

Reach Glenn Smith at gsmith@postandcourier.com or 937-5556.