[Vision2020] 09-12-04 LA Times: Televangelist Paul Crouch Attempts to Keep Accuser Quiet

[Art Deco aka W. Fox]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lonnie12sep12.story
Televangelist Paul Crouch Attempts to Keep Accuser Quiet
A former worker at TBN threatened to disclose an alleged 1996 homosexual 
encounter.
By William Lobdell
Times Staff Writer

September 12, 2004

Televangelist Paul Crouch, founder of the world's largest Christian broadcasting 
network, has waged a fierce legal battle to prevent a former employee from 
publicizing allegations that he and Crouch had a sexual encounter eight years 
ago.

Crouch, 70, is the president of Trinity Broadcasting Network, based in Orange 
County, whose Christian programming reaches millions of viewers around the world 
via satellite, cable and broadcast stations.

The source of the allegations against him is Enoch Lonnie Ford, who met Crouch 
at a TBN-affiliated drug treatment center in 1991 and later went to work for the 
ministry.

After Ford threatened to sue TBN in 1998, claiming that he had been unjustly 
fired, Crouch reached a $425,000 settlement with him. In return, Ford agreed, 
among other things, not to discuss his claim about a sexual encounter with the 
TV preacher.

But in the last year, Ford has threatened to go public with his story, prompting 
a flurry of legal maneuvers - conducted in closed court hearings, sealed 
pleadings and private arbitration.

In court papers, Crouch has denied the allegations, and ministry officials have 
described Ford - who has a history of drug problems and has served time for a 
sex offense - as a liar and an extortionist.

At stake are the public image of one of the world's most successful 
televangelists and, potentially, the fortunes of the broadcasting empire that 
Crouch and his wife, Jan, built over the last 31 years.

TBN and Crouch went on the legal offensive after they learned that Ford had 
written a book manuscript that included an account of the alleged sexual 
encounter.

In a dramatic flourish, Ford had appeared at a TBN broadcast studio in Costa 
Mesa, minutes before the start of a "Praise-a-thon" fundraiser, and, without 
comment, handed Crouch a copy of the manuscript

Ford's lawyer later told ministry officials that they could keep the work out of 
public view by buying the rights. After some discussion, he suggested that $10 
million might be a reasonable price.

While negotiations continued, Crouch sued to enforce the 1998 secrecy agreement 
and obtained a restraining order barring Ford from seeking a publisher for his 
book.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John M. Watson also granted Crouch's request 
to conduct the case in secret, sealing all documents and expunging any mention 
of the suit from public court records.

Both sides eventually agreed to let a private arbitrator decide the matter. In 
June, the arbitrator ruled that Ford could not publish the manuscript without 
violating the 1998 settlement - an act that could subject him to monetary 
damages.

This account of the controversy is drawn from interviews with friends of Ford's, 
unsealed court records, correspondence among TBN lawyers and a copy of the 
arbitrator's confidential ruling. The arbitrator's decision contains details 
about the 1998 settlement and Ford's manuscript - both of which are under seal.

Records and interviews show that even as they battled to keep Ford's story from 
leaking, TBN lawyers worried that details would eventually come out.

"I am absolutely amazed that Lonnie hasn't gone to Penthouse or Dianne [sic] 
Sawyer with his manuscript, notwithstanding the [judge's] injunction," TBN 
attorney Dennis G. Brewer Sr. wrote in a March letter to the network's other 
lawyers.

In a subsequent letter, in May, Brewer mentioned the anguish that Ford's 
accusations had caused Crouch's youngest son, Matt, when he learned of them in 
1998.

Brewer wrote that the younger Crouch had told his then-law partner, David 
Middlebrook: "I am devastated; I am confronted with having to face the fact that 
my father is a homosexual."

Middlebrook and Matt Crouch have denied that there was such a conversation.

Millions of Viewers

Paul and Jan Crouch started TBN in 1973, using a rented studio in Santa Ana. 
Over the next three decades, they built a worldwide broadcasting network by 
buying TV stations and negotiating deals with cable systems and satellite 
companies.

Today, TBN's 24-hour-a-day menu of sermons, faith healing, inspirational movies 
and other Christian fare reaches millions of viewers from Spain to the Solomon 
Islands.

Paul Crouch is the driving entrepreneurial force behind the network and one of 
its most popular on-air personalities. He and Jan, his wife of 46 years, have 
cultivated a folksy on-screen image as a devoted couple.

TBN officials have long been concerned about how Ford's allegations could affect 
the network, which relies heavily on donations from viewers. Officials said they 
were particularly worried about possible comparisons to the scandal that brought 
down televangelist Jim Bakker in 1987.

Bakker resigned from his PTL Ministries in 1987 after admitting to paying a 
secretary $265,000 in ministry funds to be silent about an earlier affair. 
Bakker later went to prison for bilking donors.

TBN officials said they were careful not to pay Ford with ministry funds in 
1998. They declined to say whether the money came from an insurer, Crouch 
personally or some other source.

Ford, 41, said he could not discuss his manuscript or his allegations against 
Crouch but he did provide basic facts about his background and his time at TBN.

Ford, whose father and grandfather were ministers, grew up in Fairfax County, 
Va., moved to California in 1989 and worked in a string of jobs that included 
jewelry salesman, produce clerk and gas station attendant. For years, he 
struggled to kick a cocaine habit.

In 1991, he checked into a Christian drug treatment program in Colleyville, 
Texas, on a TBN-owned ranch. It was there that Ford met Crouch. In 1992 the 
network hired him to work on a phone bank in Orange County. Ford said he also 
ran errands for the Crouches and drove Paul Crouch to appointments.

Ford repeatedly ran into trouble with the law, but TBN stood behind him. In 
1994, he pleaded no contest in San Bernardino County to having sex with a 
17-year-old boy and served six months in jail, according to court records. TBN 
took him back after his release.

In 1995, he pleaded guilty in Orange County to possession of cocaine and served 
about 30 days in County Jail. Again, TBN took him back.

Lake Arrowhead Cabin

The alleged sexual encounter between Ford and Crouch occurred in the fall of 
1996, according to Sandi Mahlow, a Tustin housewife who met Ford in a Fullerton 
church 10 years ago and became a close friend.

Mahlow, 50, who helped Ford write his manuscript, said he broke down in tears 
after returning from a weekend spent alone with Crouch at a TBN-owned cabin near 
Lake Arrowhead. Mahlow said Ford told her that he and Crouch had engaged in 
sexual acts.

"Lonnie had a lot of bad traits; one thing he isn't, and that's a liar," Mahlow 
said. She said she helped Ford with his manuscript for no pay, as a favor to a 
friend, and has no financial interest in the book.

After the alleged encounter, Ford continued to work at TBN. For a time, he lived 
rent-free in an apartment at the network's Tustin headquarters, according to 
Mahlow and another friend of Ford's, Diane Benson, who met him at an Anaheim 
church 14 years ago.

A third friend of Ford's said that in October 1996, about the time of the 
alleged Arrowhead encounter, ministry officials gave her a $12,000 check to pay 
back money Ford owed her. The woman spoke on condition that she not be named, 
saying she feared retaliation.

TBN officials acknowledged that the ministry paid some of Ford's debts. They 
said the network commonly extends such generosity to employees in financial 
trouble.

Within weeks of the Arrowhead trip, Ford tested positive for drug use and was 
arrested for violating terms of his probation. While Ford awaited sentencing, 
the ministry again came to his support, urging the judge not to impose more 
prison time.

Ford "has continuously shown a very positive attitude regarding whatever we have 
asked him to do," wrote Ruth M. Brown, Paul Crouch's sister and TBN's director 
of personnel. "He carried out his duties cheerfully and always tries to do more 
than asked."

The judge sent Ford to the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, a drug 
treatment facility in the state prison system.

In August 1997, Jay Jones, TBN's director of telephone ministry, wrote prison 
officials that Ford would have a job with the network after he got out, despite 
his "extended leave of absence."

But Ford said that after he was released in February 1998, he was told he no 
longer had a position at TBN.

"There comes a point in time when you have to say, 'Enough is enough,' " said 
John Casoria, a TBN lawyer who is a nephew of the Crouches.

Ford responded with his threat to sue. The settlement followed.

Despite TBN's efforts to keep Ford's charges secret, they surfaced in an 
unrelated 1998 lawsuit. A former bodyguard for TBN personality Benny Hinn 
testified in a deposition that during a European bus tour that year, Hinn had 
told a group of associates about "a sexual relationship that Paul Crouch had 
with his chauffeur."

The witness, Mario C. Licciardello, quoted Hinn as saying: "Paul's defense was 
that he was drunk."

Hinn and six others mentioned by Licciardello, who died in 2000, told The Times 
that Hinn never made such remarks. However, Rick Jones, a retired police officer 
and ordained minister who worked for Hinn, said he heard Hinn talk about 
Crouch's alleged homosexual relationship on that bus.

Jones said he was disgusted by the talk and "got up and walked away. I didn't 
want to hear gossip."

Asking $10 Million

Meanwhile, Ford began to have second thoughts about keeping silent. Last year, 
with Mahlow's help, he wrote his manuscript, titled "Arrowhead."

Friends said Ford wanted to expose what he viewed as Crouch's hypocrisy. They 
said he also needed money and hoped to earn some by selling the manuscript. It's 
unclear how Ford spent his 1998 settlement, but today he leads a modest 
existence, living in a room of a Lake Forest home and working as a mortgage 
salesman.

Ministry officials learned of the book in April 2003, when Ford walked onto the 
set of TBN's Costa Mesa broadcast studio and handed a copy of the manuscript to 
Crouch.

Ford's attorney, Eugene Zech, said that Brewer, the TBN lawyer, called him the 
next business day. In court papers, Zech said that Brewer asked "if Ford might 
be willing to accept $1 million in exchange for the manuscript."

Zech said in the court filing that he suggested $10 million.

When the parties went to arbitration, Crouch's lawyers argued that publication 
would violate the 1998 settlement and cause irreparable damage to Crouch's 
reputation. Ford's lawyers argued that the secrecy agreement was overly broad 
and violated his free-speech rights.

Arbitrator Robert J. Neill ruled that Ford's right to make his allegations 
public "was sold to [Crouch] for $425,000." Ford "bargained away his right to 
speak on certain matters and now suggests that his right to free speech trumps 
that bargain.. [His] right to discuss these matters was bought and paid for. He 
relinquished that right."

Paul Crouch Jr., a TBN executive and the televangelist's oldest son, said that 
despite the favorable ruling, he wished his father had never entered into the 
settlement with Ford.

Crouch said advisors persuaded his father that it would be cheaper to settle 
than to litigate. He said TBN was particularly anxious to avoid negative 
publicity because the ministry was celebrating its 25th anniversary that year.

"In hindsight, we should have fought Lonnie tooth and nail," the son said in an 
interview. "We should have drawn the battle lines right there." 
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