(CP) Megachurch Pastor TD Jakes has formally denied allegations he sexually assaulted former pastor Duane Youngblood when he was a teen or his older brother, Pastor Richard Edwin Youngblood, in a authorized response to a movement searching for to dismiss a defamation lawsuit in opposition to his accusers.
Calling the claims an orchestrated “marketing campaign of lies” in a failed try to extort $6 million from him, the 562-page response was filed Friday within the US District Court docket for the Western District of Pennsylvania and reviewed by The Christian Put up.
Jakes and his three high-profile attorneys — Devin J Chwastyk of McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC in Pennsylvania; Dustin A Pusch of Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch LLP in Washington DC; and Derrelle M Janey of The Janey Legislation Agency PC in New York Metropolis — aggressively problem the credibility of his accusers who sought to dismiss his defamation lawsuit pursuant to Pennsylvania’s anti-SLAPP statute final month.
The submitting consists of an eight-page affidavit from Jakes, who declares underneath penalty of perjury that the claims made in opposition to him by the Youngblood brothers and a number of John Does are malicious lies.
“I’ve reviewed the affidavits of Duane Youngblood and Richard Youngblood submitted in help of the movement to dismiss. The statements in these affidavits purport to explain conditions the place I harbored carnal wishes for these males. These statements are knowingly and flagrantly false,” Jakes, who based the 80,000-member Potter’s Home in Dallas, Texas, states within the affidavit.
“I’m repulsed by these defamatory accusations and the $6 million extortion letter I acquired from Duane Youngblood’s lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn.”
Within the 167-page movement to dismiss Jakes’ lawsuit, Richard Youngblood claims that much like his youthful brother’s expertise, Jakes tried to sexually assault him years in the past, whereas he shared a resort room with the bishop throughout a ministry journey.
“He secured a room with two beds in it, and we went to the room for the evening. That evening, whereas I used to be laying in my mattress, I felt Elder Jakes climb into my mattress. He pressed his physique in opposition to mine and requested, ‘Youngblood, do you’re feeling that?’ He was referencing his erection that he was urgent in opposition to my bottom,” Richard Youngblood wrote in his affidavit.
“I bought up away from bed in full shock as he additionally [got] up from the alternative aspect and met me. He grabbed me by my arms and pulled me to him and began making an attempt to kiss me. At this level, I can not consider what is occurring to me.”
Others who’ve made sworn affidavits in help of Duane Youngblood’s claims are Jeffrey S Grey; Daniel B Spaulding; LaShawn Youngblood; Joshua Munoz; and Landon Claybourne.
Along with his earlier declare, Duane Youngblood additionally alleges within the movement that since he has gone public, Jakes and his associates “have engaged in retaliatory conduct to silence him.”
Based on the movement, Duane Youngblood reported “receiving threats from people related to Plaintiff, together with his son.”
Jakes insists that he’s making the unprecedented transfer to defend himself legally due to the “lies” propagated by his critics and since he’s uninterested in turning the opposite cheek.
“For years, I’ve been recommended to disregard the fixed stream of low-level smears in opposition to my popularity. Nonetheless, the emotional and bodily toll of this coordinated marketing campaign of lies, designed to wreck my popularity and legacy, has change into overwhelming,” he explains.
“The ache it has prompted my spouse of 43 years and my 5 youngsters, whom I’ve all the time cherished, nurtured, and supplied for, is just too a lot to bear. Each individual has a breaking level. I’ve reached mine. I licensed this lawsuit as a result of I can not stay silent,” he provides.
Jakes, 68, filed his defamation lawsuit in opposition to 58-year-old Duane Youngblood final November, a day after he suffered “a slight well being incident,” which he stated virtually killed him whereas preaching.
Duane Youngblood claimed in interviews with web persona Larry Reid on his “Larry Reid Dwell” present on Oct. 28 and Nov. 3, 2024, that Jakes assaulted him when he was about 18 or 19 years outdated.
The youthful Youngblood instructed Reid that he had been speaking with Jakes for about two hours on the house of an older grownup clergywoman, the place he was staying throughout a neighborhood church revival roughly 40 years in the past when Jakes tried to kiss him.
The morning after the encounter, Youngblood, who’s now a registered intercourse offender who served time for abusing minors whereas he served as their pastor, alleges Jakes referred to as his house and intimated that he needed him to change into a neighborhood intercourse companion.
“My mom solutions the telephone, and he or she says to me, ‘Duane, it is Elder Jakes.’ Jakes and I get on that telephone and once I get on that phone, I can hear water. He’s sitting in a bath, and in that factor, he says to me, with none hesitation, ‘there’s three issues I want you to do. The primary one is, once I come to Pittsburgh, you are going to be the one individual I sleep with. The second is, you may’t sleep with anyone else as a result of I do not need to give my spouse something. And thirdly, I’ll maintain you the remainder of your life,” Youngblood claimed throughout his interview with Reid.
Days after making these allegations public, Jakes’ attorneys stated an lawyer representing Youngblood despatched a requirement letter to him on Nov. 24, 2024, demanding $6 million “to ‘resolve this matter rapidly and privately;’ in any other case, Youngblood would convey a lawsuit in opposition to Bishop Jakes for sexual assault and harassment.”
Jakes argues in his Feb. 14 affidavit that he might barely afford to financially help himself and his household across the time Duane Youngblood claims he provided to pay him for unique sexual favours. Jakes contends it would not make sense why he would provide to financially help a younger man in alternate for sexual favours.
“This assertion is just not solely ludicrous; it’s a bald-faced lie. To be clear: whereas I sometimes travelled to Pennsylvania round 1986 to evangelise at space church buildings that have been a part of the Higher Emanuel Worldwide Fellowship community, I by no means tried to nook, seize, or kiss any youngsters,” Jakes insists.
“I by no means phoned Duane Youngblood to proposition him for intercourse in alternate for monetary help. And I by no means groomed, sexually abused, sexually assaulted, and engaged in predatory conduct of a sexual nature in the direction of Duane Youngblood. I by no means apologized to Youngblood for any such conduct as a result of it didn’t occur.”
Jakes claims that Richard Youngblood is solely making an attempt to get revenge as a result of he refused to provide him a job for which he was unqualified.
“He hasn’t been capable of preserve a job, he has a number of youngsters with completely different girls, and a felony conviction for failure to pay youngster help. It is troublesome to respect a person who would not maintain his youngsters. In all my years, I’ve by no means initiated a lawsuit in opposition to anybody. We filed this lawsuit in opposition to people who have been alleged to be males of God however are clearly not,” Jakes provides within the affidavit.
“The catalyst for this motion was not merely the character of the accusations however the relentless assaults by the overzealous blogger. I’ve confronted many assaults in my life, however none like this. Even so, I really feel compelled to face up in opposition to these bullies,” Jakes notes, pointing fingers at web persona Larry Reid.
“They’re working in live performance, relentlessly concentrating on me and my household with vicious, unfounded assaults. I spent the previous yr enduring their vicious assaults, lies, rumours of my spouse leaving, rumours of my church abandoning me, and a lot extra. … All of this was occurring whereas I discovered myself serving to my spouse recuperate from knee alternative surgical procedure and whereas serving to my brother navigate kidney failure,” he continues.
“This unwarranted stress introduced me to a spot of getting a well being disaster on stage in entrance of my total congregation. As a man who’d had no earlier well being challenges, this near-death expertise was a turning level for me. Sufficient is sufficient!”
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