Forced labor, terror through text messages, and denied food and sleep all to support a luxury lifestyle. That’s the case the U.S. Attorney is building against a Taylor man and his business partner.
Local 4 did a deep dive, uncovering new details about the case against two church leaders accused of operating a multistate forced labor and money laundering scheme.
Background: Church leaders accused of exploiting call center workers in multistate money laundering conspiracy
David Taylor and Michelle Branon are the leaders of Kingdom of God Global Church, formerly known as Joshua Media Ministries. It’s a religious organization that started in the Metro Detroit area.
Taylor and Brannon are awaiting extradition.
Taylor was arrested in Durham, North Carolina, and Brannon was arrested in Tampa, Florida.
Outlined in the latest court documents is why prosecutors argue they are a danger to the community.
Related: He lured Michiganders by posing as God’s best friend. Then he took over their whole lives, feds say
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit cannot say where Taylor and Brannon are for security reasons, but they will be brought back to Michigan to face trial.
The case against the two was exposed during a multistate raid the morning of Aug. 27, 2025.
A spiraling mansion in a high-end neighborhood of Tampa, a 10,000-square-foot property outside of St. Louis formerly owned by the rapper Nelly, a former hotel in Houston converted into a massive campus, and a property on Superior Road in Taylor are where investigators said it all started.
Behind the doors of a glamorous multi-million dollar mansion, federal investigators describe a harrowing human trafficking operation disguised as a church ministry.
According to the federal indictment, church members were forced to work in call centers without pay, “sometimes more than 20 hours per day.”
They were also sometimes deprived of food, sleep and medical care, according to officials.
Text messages outlined the indictment against Taylor and Brannon paint a chilling picture of the abuse endured by the alleged victims, who were forced to work in the ministry’s call centers.
“Nobody gets lunch or dinner! You’re going to press for another five hours. Make sure one eats until these numbers change,” one text wrote.
Taylor allegedly threatened to make call center workers stay up until 4 a.m. In another message, he allegedly threatened to put workers on a regimen of only peanut butter and jelly.
Church members who didn’t comply were allegedly punished with physical and verbal abuse that would last for hours.
The indictment stated that victims were punished if they didn’t meet Taylor’s donation quotas.
Court documents revealed that they forbade relationships and punished workers for disobeying this rule, and “isolated workers from the outside work by breaking up marriages and other relationships.”
David John said his family member started to lose contact with family after joining Taylor’s church.
“That should’ve been a red flag,” said John. “That should’ve really created more concern and more of an alarm that there is this large amount of time that they’re not communicating.”
Local 4 discovered in new court documents that about $50 million in donations were made since 2014. None of those millions were used for church. Instead, prosecutors said it paid for Taylor and Brannon’s luxury lifestyle, including expensive cars, a TV and even 125 pounds of king crab legs.
“You have evidence that these defendants used church money to buy Mercedes, Bentleys, jet skis, a boat, and a big mansion, the government is going to try to seize all that,” said Matthew Schneider, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
In court documents, Investigators at Local 4 uncovered that Taylor allegedly threatened authorities before his arrest, even identifying the Michigan attorney general in a meeting with workers, telling his followers, “God will kill officials.”
Read more: ‘God will kill officials’: Self-proclaimed religious leader urged violence against police, feds say
Schneider said federal prosecutors have crucial pieces of evidence that will help their case if it goes to trial.
“Number one – they have the text messages from the defendants talking about the crime,” he said. “That’s always some of the best evidence. Number two, they have the victims’ statements themselves. At least eight victims are named by number in this charge, and so they could come forward. Then finally, you have what all juries hate – people taking money and spending it on themselves.”
Brannon and Taylor are facing several charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, forced labor, and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Each charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Brannon and Taylor were remanded pending their trial.
On Sept. 24, 2025, Brannon’s attorney filed a motion stating that she should be released on bail because “she does not pose a danger to the community or any other person against which no combination of conditions of release can reasonably assure.”
According to her attorney, she suffered a cardiac event while she was in jail in Florida and underwent surgery. Brannon “suffered significant distress” and spent several days in the hospital.
Her attorney also claimed that she was manipulated and controlled by Taylor at a supervisory level.
The motion stated that if Brannon were released on bail, she would be released under the condition that she would have no contact with Taylor or any former members of the organization except her power of attorney as she assists her with health care following Brannon’s recent cardiac surgery.
In the motion, Brannon suggested she could stay at her friend’s home in Northville or at a mansion in Florida that’s nearest to her cardiologist.