By LeoNardo Blair, Senior Reporter
Megachurch Pastor T.D. Jakes has formally denied allegations he sexually assaulted historical pastor Duane Youngblood when he was as soon as an adolescent or his older brother, Pastor Richard Edwin Youngblood, in a stunning response to a motion hunting for to push aside a defamation lawsuit against his accusers.
Calling the claims an orchestrated “campaign of lies” in a failed are trying to extort $6 million from him, the 562-page response was as soon as filed Friday within the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and reviewed by The Christian Publish.
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 D.C.; and Derrelle M. Janey of The Janey Regulations Firm P.C. in New York Metropolis — aggressively disaster the credibility of his accusers who sought to push aside his defamation lawsuit pursuant to Pennsylvania’s anti-SLAPP statute closing month.
The submitting contains an eight-page affidavit from Jakes, who publicizes beneath penalty of perjury that the claims made against him by the Youngblood brothers and multiple John Does are malicious lies.
“I genuinely bear reviewed the affidavits of Duane Youngblood and Richard Youngblood submitted in assist of the motion to push aside. The statements in these affidavits purport to listing instances where I harbored carnal desires for these men. These statements are knowingly and flagrantly false,” Jakes, who founded the 80,000-member Potter’s Dwelling in Dallas, Texas, states within the affidavit.
“I am repulsed by these defamatory accusations and the $6 million extortion letter I purchased from Duane Youngblood’s attorney, Tyrone Blackburn.”
In the 167-page motion to push aside Jakes’ lawsuit, Richard Youngblood claims that very same to his youthful brother’s trip, Jakes tried to sexually assault him years within the past, while he shared a hotel room with the bishop within the center of a ministry day out.
“He secured a room with two beds in it, and we went to the room for the night. That night, while I was as soon as laying in my mattress, I felt Elder Jakes climb into my mattress. He pressed his physique against mine and asked, ‘Youngblood, attain you feel that?’ He was as soon as referencing his erection that he was as soon as urgent against my backside,” Richard Youngblood wrote in his affidavit.
“I got up off the mattress in full shock as he also [got] up from the reverse aspect and met me. He grabbed me by my arms and pulled me to him and started attempting to kiss me. At this level, I can no longer imagine what is taking place to me.”
Others who bear made sworn affidavits in assist of Duane Youngblood’s claims are Jeffrey S. Gray, who also shared Duane Youngblood’s disclosures about Jakes; Daniel B. Spaulding; LaShawn Youngblood; Joshua Munoz; and Landon Claybourne.
To boot to his previous mutter, Duane Youngblood also alleges within the motion that since he has long past public, Jakes and his friends “bear engaged in retaliatory conduct to silence him.”
In response to the motion, Duane Youngblood reported “receiving threats from folks connected to Plaintiff, alongside side his son.”
Jakes insists that he is making the unparalleled transfer to defend himself legally thanks to the “lies” propagated by his critics and on memoir of he is bored with turning the many cheek.
“For years, I genuinely were counseled to fail to bear in mind the constant stream of low-diploma smears against my reputation. However, the emotional and bodily toll of this coordinated campaign of lies, designed to damage my reputation and legacy, has changed into overwhelming,” he explains.
“The wretchedness it has prompted my wife of 43 years and my five young folks, whom I genuinely bear consistently loved, nurtured, and supplied for, is merely too mighty to endure. Every person has a brink. I genuinely bear reached mine. I licensed this lawsuit on memoir of I can now no longer remain nonetheless,” he provides.
Jakes, 68, filed his defamation lawsuit against 58-year-archaic Duane Youngblood closing November, a day after he suffered “a dinky neatly being incident,” which he acknowledged nearly killed him while preaching.
Duane Youngblood claimed in interviews with recordsdata superhighway persona Larry Reid on his “Larry Reid Are residing” direct on Oct. 28 and Nov. 3, 2024, that Jakes assaulted him when he was as soon as about 18 or 19 years archaic.
The youthful Youngblood urged Reid that he had been talking with Jakes for roughly two hours on the home of an older grownup clergywoman, where he was as soon as staying within the center of a neighborhood church revival approximately 40 years within the past when Jakes tried to kiss him.
The morning after the encounter, Youngblood, who is now a registered intercourse perpetrator who served time for abusing minors while he served as their pastor, alleges Jakes known as his home and intimated that he an main him to changed into a neighborhood intercourse accomplice.
“My mom solutions the phone, and she says to me, ‘Duane, or no longer it is Elder Jakes.’ Jakes and I derive on that phone and after I derive on that phone, I can hear water. He’s sitting in a shower, and in that aspect, he says to me, with none hesitation, ‘there’s three things I need you to realize. The foremost one is, after I come to Pittsburgh, you are going to be the finest person I sleep with. The second is, you can’t sleep with anybody else on memoir of I construct no longer want to present my wife anything. And thirdly, I will seize care of you the remainder of your lifestyles,” Youngblood claimed within the center of his interview with Reid.
Days after making these allegations public, Jakes’ attorneys acknowledged an attorney representing Youngblood sent a search recordsdata from letter to him on Nov. 24, 2024, tense $6 million “to ‘unravel this topic rapid and privately;’ in another case, Youngblood would carry a lawsuit against Bishop Jakes for sexual assault and harassment.”
Jakes argues in his Feb. 14 affidavit that he may maybe maybe barely come up with the money for to financially assist himself and his family spherical the time Duane Youngblood claims he offered to pay him for outlandish sexual favors. Jakes contends it doesn’t manufacture sense why he would offer to financially assist a young man in trade for sexual favors.
“This assertion is not any longer finest ludicrous; it is a bald-faced lie. To make sure: while I as soon as rapidly travelled to Pennsylvania spherical 1986 to evangelise at space churches that were a part of the Greater Emanuel World Fellowship network, I never tried to corner, rob, or kiss any young folks,” Jakes insists.
“I never phoned Duane Youngblood to proposition him for intercourse in trade for financial assist. And I never groomed, sexually abused, sexually assaulted, and engaged in predatory conduct of a sexual nature in direction of Duane Youngblood. I never apologized to Youngblood for one of these conduct on memoir of it didn’t happen.”
Jakes claims that Richard Youngblood is merely attempting to derive revenge on memoir of he refused to present him a job for which he was as soon as unqualified.
“He hasn’t been in a field to preserve a job, he has multiple young folks with various girls, and a criminal conviction for failure to pay child assist. It’s tough to admire a man who doesn’t seize care of his young folks. In all my years, I genuinely bear never initiated a lawsuit against anybody. We filed this lawsuit against folks who were speculated to be men of God nonetheless are clearly no longer,” Jakes provides within the affidavit.
“The catalyst for this motion was as soon as no longer merely the nature of the accusations nonetheless the relentless attacks by the overzealous blogger. I genuinely bear faced many attacks in my lifestyles, nonetheless none esteem this. Even so, I genuinely feel compelled to face up against these bullies,” Jakes notes, pointing fingers at recordsdata superhighway persona Larry Reid.
“They’re working in live efficiency, relentlessly focusing on me and my family with vicious, false attacks. I spent the past year enduring their vicious attacks, lies, rumors of my wife leaving, rumors of my church leaving on the succor of me, and so mighty extra. … All of this was as soon as taking place while I learned myself helping my wife derive better from knee exchange surgical treatment and while helping my brother navigate kidney failure,” he continues.
“This unwarranted stress brought me to a put of having a neatly being crisis on stage in front of my total congregation. As a man who’d had no previous neatly being challenges, this near-dying trip was as soon as a turning level for me. Enough is ample!”
Contact: leoNardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow LeoNardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow LeoNardo Blair on Fb: LeoBlairChristianPost
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