lawyer wrote out a request for dismissal of the case by hand and handed it to lawyers for Paulk and the cathedral. This was just as a ruling was about to come on a motion by Paulk's lawyers to dismiss the allegations. By dropping the case before the ruling, the Brewers left open the possibility of filing another suit with the same allegations. "We were having difficulty even at this point getting witnesses to speak out against the acts of Bishop Paulk and the church," Levenson said. "Sometimes you just have to do this." The Brewers did, in fact, refile the suit with another judge. However, in February 2008, DeKalb County Judge Mark Anthony Scott threw the case into limbo when he ruled that Mona Brewer was "of sound mind" when she and Paulk began their relationship. Scott ordered the Brewers to reimburse Paulk for $1 million in legal expenses for filing a frivolous suit. Under Georgia law, the second suit they filed couldn't continue until the attorneys' fees were paid. However, in February 2009, the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed Scott's decision, citing numerous instances where Paulk himself stated under oath that he was Mona's "spiritual adviser, minister, pastor and reverend." Although Paulk's death removed him from the suit, Mona said she fully intended to continue her suit against the cathedral. Donnie Earl Paulk On October 14, 2007, Donnie Earl (D.E.) Paulk, who had become senior pastor of the cathedral a few months earlier, informed a shocked congregation that a paternity test had revealed he was Earl Paulk's son, and not his nephew as he had believed for all his life. D.E. Paulk had been raised as the son of Don Paulk, Earl Paulk's brother. However, the test confirmed that he was the product of an illicit relationship between Earl Paulk and his sister-in-law, Clariece Paulk, who was married to Don. Don Paulk later said that he has forgiven his brother, and said D.E.'s paternity "made no difference in my love for my brother or my son." During the Brewer case, Earl Paulk had denied sleeping with anyone other than Mona Brewer. However, prosecutors and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) suspected he was lying, and triggered an investigation that led to a court-ordered paternity test on D.E. Paulk. As a result, Earl Paulk was charged with perjury on January 14, 2008. Two days later, he pleaded guilty to