(RNS) — Dallas megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes persisted to disclaim claims by two other ministers who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct, describing the accusers in a newly filed affidavit as “bullies” and himself because the sufferer of a blueprint to “execute” him.
“In all my years, I even have by no method initiated a lawsuit against somebody,” Jakes mentioned in the eight-web page affidavit that used to be half of a 562-web page kit of accurate paperwork filed in a Pennsylvania federal court docket on Friday (Feb. 14). “We filed this lawsuit against folks who had been speculated to be males of God nonetheless are clearly no longer.” Two males, the brothers Duane and Richard Youngblood, grunt that Jakes made sexual advances a protracted time previously, when he used to be pastor of a church in West Virginia.
Jakes’ accurate team filed a defamation swimsuit against Duane Youngblood in November, a day after Jakes suffered an unspecified clinical incident in front of his congregation attending a Sunday carrier at The Potter’s Apartment in Dallas.
Jakes claimed the incident, for which he used to be in transient hospitalized, along with other family health eventualities, spurred him to take the accurate motion.
“All of this used to be happening whereas I stumbled on myself helping my necessary other get better from knee replace surgical treatment and whereas helping my brother navigate kidney failure,” he wrote in the assertion filed Friday. “This unwarranted stress introduced me to a inform of getting a health crisis on stage in front of my total congregation. As a man who’d had no outdated health challenges, this advance-death skills used to be a turning level for me. Ample is ample!”
Friday’s filings came in step with a January motion to push aside the defamation swimsuit by Duane Youngblood, a Pennsylvania man who made his allegations against Jakes in two 2024 interviews on the “Larry Reid Stay” YouTube talk hiss.
RELATED: Second minister accuses T.D. Jakes of sexual misconduct in defamation swimsuit submitting
In his affidavit, Duane Youngblood recalled a lengthy dialog he had with Jakes as a teen at the inner most house the build the elder minister used to be staying. “As I ready to leave, he pulled me end and tried to kiss me,” per the affidavit. Youngblood mentioned Jakes known as him the subsequent morning and “instructed me he wanted me to be the finest person he had a sexual relationship with when he came to town.”
The motion to push aside Jakes’ swimsuit included a sworn affidavit from Youngblood’s older brother, the Rev. Richard Edwin Youngblood, who testified that he had heard Duane Youngblood describe the alleged misconduct by Jakes. However Richard Youngblood moreover claimed that Jakes climbed into mattress with him on a church industry trudge.
Richard Youngblood mentioned he first met Jakes all over the spring of 1986 and labored as an assistant and reward and cherish leader in Jakes’ church earlier than “things began to became peculiar,” including Jakes discussing oral intercourse. Later, he mentioned, Jakes rented a hotel room one evening for them with two beds.
“That evening, whereas I was laying in my mattress, I felt Elder Jakes climb into my mattress. He pressed his body against mine and requested, ‘Youngblood, end you feel that?’” reads the assertion, signed in December 2024. “He used to be referencing his erection that he used to be pressing against my inspire aspect.”
Jakes and his accurate team answered to the allegations by noting that Duane Youngblood has prison convictions for sexual assault and corruption of minors and mentioned Richard Youngblood’s “narrative surfaced most efficient after I declined to rent him as a result of his lack of qualifications.” Jakes mentioned the ask of from Richard Youngblood happened about 10 years previously.
In a 2d affidavit in Friday’s filings, Jakes’ son Jermaine spoke in strengthen of his father. In Duane Youngblood’s filings, the younger Jakes used to be accused of sending the accuser a “message perceived as carrying an rapid possibility of damage.”
However Jermaine Jakes mentioned that after he saw an advert relating to the then-pending 2d YouTube interview with Reid, he reached out to Duane Youngblood by textual impart material to warn him about Reid, whom Jakes’ son did no longer have in thoughts to be faithful.
“There used to be no motive behind me to explain the relaxation that I intended or intended to be threatening,” Jermaine Jakes wrote in the doc filed Friday. “Duane answered to my message practically straight bringing up that he got the message and ‘it used to be mighty.’”
Larry Reid, left, interviews Duane Youngblood on the “Larry Reid Stay” YouTube talk hiss on Nov. 3, 2024. (Video veil rob)
Duane Youngblood, who described T.D. Jakes as a groomer, alleged that Jakes had provided to address the then-child financially “for existence,” nonetheless Jakes and his team maintained that at the time of the alleged incident, the elder minister would possibly well maybe perhaps also no longer have afforded to compose that offer. “For the duration of that duration, I was barely retaining my have family out of poverty,” Jakes wrote. “I was no longer the ‘Bishop TD Jakes’ of this day. I was a pastor without a mountainous following, and no monetary resources.”
The court docket filings consist of as shows two photography that Jakes’ team mentioned depict the positioning of his storefront church and dwelling at the time and that the team says hiss he used to be a “shrimp-town preacher.” Jakes mentioned it used to be most efficient an introduction to evangelist Carlton Pearson at a 1992 evangelical conference, adopted the subsequent year by his preaching a “Lady Thou Art work Loosed” sermon, that led to his being known nationwide.
The filings moreover consist of a Nov. 15 letter by which Duane Youngblood’s lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, requested an “opening settlement ask of six million dollars” to uncover to the backside of Youngblood’s claims against Jakes.
They moreover indicate that Duane Youngblood has created a domain the build Youngblood would possibly well maybe perhaps even be booked as a speaker, coach or to indicate webinars on overcoming trauma. Jakes moreover claims Youngblood has plans for a forthcoming e-book that is, as Jakes acknowledged, a “‘repeat-all’ about me.”
“I believe a increased network is taking into consideration this blueprint, all waiting for a share of this attempted ‘money rob,’” Jakes, whose entrepreneurial pursuits consist of movie manufacturing and staunch estate constructing, wrote in the affidavit. “This total smear marketing campaign began rapidly after the general public announcement of a dedication from Wells Fargo of as a lot as $1 billion for neighborhood redevelopment.”
Jakes’ representatives declined to reply to questions from RNS relating to the accurate filings, citing it as “an ongoing accurate matter,” nonetheless mentioned he is continuous to get better from the clinical incident.
“He stays on the path to restoration, bolstered by his religion, his purpose and the prayers of so many who proceed to comprehend him up,” mentioned Jordan Hora, govt director of PR and communications for the T.D. Jakes Community, T.D. Jakes Ministries and The Potter’s Apartment. “Along with his doctors’ guidance, he used to be cleared to begin up very slowly to minister all over a most modern Wednesday Night time Bible College class on Feb. 12, and we’re grateful for each and each step forward.”
RNS requested about Jakes’ prognosis and prognosis after the clinical incident and Hora answered: “We’re smitten by his persisted therapeutic and are no longer ready to share additional necessary aspects about his clinical race at the moment.”
RELATED: T.D. Jakes files swimsuit after clinical incident, accusing minister of faux abuse claims
by 
