The Rev Ted Haggard’s recent pleas for cash and his plan to return to ministry work were doused by a pastor Monday, who said the former New Life Church leader would not work in a Phoenix halfway house.

Compounding the former pastor’s troubles, the organization Haggard chose to handle tax-deductible contributions for his family is led by a twice-convicted sex offender.

That man, too, distanced himself from Haggard on Monday.

Haggard, reached by phone Monday, declined to comment.

He stepped down in November as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was dismissed as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church amid a gay-sex and drugs scandal. He later moved to Phoenix and now attends the 15,000-member Phoenix First Assembly of God, led by Tommy Barnett. Barnett is one of three pastors assigned to help with Haggard’s spiritual restoration.

In an e-mail sent to the media and supporters last week, Haggard said he planned to return to work for the Dream Center, a place that helps Phoenix’s downtrodden. He said he and his family would live at the center, where he would offer counseling, teaching and serve in “whatever capacity asked.”

The Dream Center is run by Barnett.

Despite earning $338,000 since the start of 2006, he asked for two years of monthly financial support as he and his wife work toward college degrees at the University of Phoenix.

Monday, an associate pastor of the Phoenix church, Leo Godzich, said Haggard will not be working or living at the Dream Center.

“That was something that was totally unbeknownst to us when he sent it,” Godzich said about the announcement. “It was just something that he thought of in a conceptual stage, and nothing had been decided.”

He declined to discuss Haggard further, saying that his spiritual restoration was a private affair that shouldn’t be played out in the news media.

A team of overseers appointed under church guidelines to help Haggard and New Life Church recover after the scandal will meet with Haggard today in Phoenix to discuss his e-mail, said one of the overseers, Mike Ware, senior pastor at Victory Church in Westminster. He declined to comment further until the group meets with Haggard.

Haggard directed would-be donors to Families with a Mission, an organization led by Paul G. Huberty. Huberty, a former lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, was convicted of sex crimes in 1996 and 2004.

Huberty wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette on Monday afternoon that Haggard acted on his own:

“Our non-profit organization never authorized a mass public appeal for donations for the Haggard family, nor were we even aware of it until published by the media. Not one donation has been solicited by our non-profit organization designated to or supporting the Haggard family — and our organization has not sent any solicited financial support to Pastor Haggard,” he wrote.

Huberty declined to talk about his criminal past.

“My past record from years ago is documented and has nothing to do with Pastor Haggard or with this non-profit organization that seeks to help people in need,” he wrote.

Military court records show Huberty, an 18-year veteran, was convicted in 1996 of consensual sodomy, fondling his genitals in public, indecent acts and adultery. He was dismissed from the military and sentenced to six months in confinement.

The married father of three was convicted of fondling himself in front of two women in the Netherlands while assigned to the Geilenkirchen NATO Air Base in Germany. The charges of sodomy, indecency and adultery involved a 17-year-old girl who was his legal ward at the time.

In Hawaii, Huberty was convicted of second-degree attempted sexual assault in January 2004.

His sentencing included stipulations that he not contact minors over the Internet, visit area schools or possess pornography.

He is registered as a sex offender in Hawaii.

Families with a Mission was dissolved in Colorado, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. It is now based in Hawaii. Although the group is not included in the Internal Revenue Service’s list of tax-exempt organizations, Huberty wrote the group is exempt and in good standing with the IRS. It has no paid employees, he added.

A search did not find a Web site for the organization, and Huberty did not respond to e-mailed follow-up questions.

Haggard was one of the most powerful religious figures in the United States when former prostitute Mike Jones surfaced with claims that he and Haggard had sexual trysts for three years and that Haggard used methamphetamine. In November, Haggard confessed to buying drugs and getting massages from Jones and admitted to “sexual immorality.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0198 or bnewsome@gazette.com