The owners of Potter’s Field Ministries have paid nearly $122,000 in back pay to individuals who filed wage claims in 2019 after the church’s internship program and associated MudMan Burgers chain folded.

On Thursday an employee with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry stated in an email “I can confirm that payments have been received and all the checks have been sent to the workers.”

Potter’s Field founders Mike and Pam Rozell had filed redetermination requests for the claims in spring of 2020 after the state’s initial decision that the interns were due their back pay. The redetermination process wrapped up last month and the state once again decided the Rozells owed $121,960 spread out across five separate wage claims.

Montana law allows the parties in wage claim cases one redetermination request. After one is issued, anyone who is dissatisfied with the results may appeal to mediation, and if mediation is successful, the matter can proceed to a contested hearing before the Office of Administration.

Based on their decision to send the claimants their checks, the Rozells will not be appealing their case — a decision that puts an end to a nearly 18-month wait for the former ministry members.

According to state documents, legal counsel for the Rozells had argued, among other points, that in most of the cases, interns donated their time and energies to serve God as an act of sacrifice and worship, “in the same way he/she would worship through the giving of his/her tithes and offerings.”

But claimants maintained they had not been compensated fairly for time spent working under the ministry.

Four of the individuals worked at a MudMan Burgers location as part of the ministry’s IGNITE 2.0 internship program. Some reported working upward of 70 hours per week for far below minimum wage.

Their experiences were echoed by many who spoke out against the ministry and the Rozells in the summer of 2019 when more than 20 individuals alleged the two had psychologically and spiritually abused interns for years.

The allegations prompted the internship program and burger chain to close. However, the Rozells have since reopened both the Kalispell and Columbia Falls MudMan locations. The restaurants had formerly operated as doing-business-as entities under the Potter’s Field umbrella, but they are not stand-alone for-profit businesses.

When the Columbia Falls location first indicated it was reopening last spring, a religious blog site that has posted dozens of testimonies from former ministry members stated the Rozells were also attempting to “woo back interns.”

However, Potter’s Field attorney Sharon DiMuro, told the Daily Inter Lake in March 2020 that the post should be taken “with a grain of salt,” and that the Rozells have no intentions of restarting the program. As of Friday, the church’s website does not indicate an internship program is available.

The Daily Inter Lake has made several attempts to reach the Rozells, but has been unsuccessful. It is unclear if DiMuro is still representing the ministry or the Rozells.

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com