(CP) Megachurch Pastor TD Jakes has formally denied allegations he sexually assaulted former pastor Duane Youngblood when he was a teenager or his older brother, Pastor Richard Edwin Youngblood, in a legal response to a motion seeking to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against his accusers.
Calling the claims an orchestrated “campaign of lies” in a failed attempt to extort $6 million from him, the 562-page response was filed Friday in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and reviewed by The Christian Post.
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 Law Firm PC in New York City — aggressively challenge the credibility of his accusers who sought to dismiss his defamation lawsuit pursuant to Pennsylvania’s anti-SLAPP statute last month.
The filing includes an eight-page affidavit from Jakes, who declares under penalty of perjury that the claims made against him by the Youngblood brothers and multiple John Does are malicious lies.
“I have reviewed the affidavits of Duane Youngblood and Richard Youngblood submitted in support of the motion to dismiss. The statements in these affidavits purport to describe situations where I harbored carnal desires for these men. These statements are knowingly and flagrantly false,” Jakes, who founded the 80,000-member Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, states in the affidavit.
“I am repulsed by these defamatory accusations and the $6 million extortion letter I received from Duane Youngblood’s attorney, Tyrone Blackburn.”
In the 167-page motion to dismiss Jakes’ lawsuit, Richard Youngblood claims that similar to his younger brother’s experience, Jakes tried to sexually assault him years ago, while he shared a hotel room with the bishop during a ministry trip.
“He secured a room with two beds in it, and we went to the room for the night. That night, while I was laying in my bed, I felt Elder Jakes climb into my bed. He pressed his body against mine and asked, ‘Youngblood, do you feel that?’ He was referencing his erection that he was pressing against my backside,” Richard Youngblood wrote in his affidavit.
“I got up out of bed in complete shock as he also [got] up from the opposite side and met me. He grabbed me by my arms and pulled me to him and started trying to kiss me. At this point, I cannot believe what is happening to me.”
Others who have made sworn affidavits in support of Duane Youngblood’s claims are Jeffrey S Gray; Daniel B Spaulding; LaShawn Youngblood; Joshua Munoz; and Landon Claybourne.
In addition to his previous claim, Duane Youngblood also alleges in the motion that since he has gone public, Jakes and his associates “have engaged in retaliatory conduct to silence him.”
According to the motion, Duane Youngblood reported “receiving threats from individuals associated with Plaintiff, including his son.”
Jakes insists that he is making the unprecedented move to defend himself legally because of the “lies” propagated by his critics and because he is tired of turning the other cheek.
“For years, I have been counseled to ignore the constant stream of low-level smears against my reputation. However, the emotional and physical toll of this coordinated campaign of lies, designed to damage my reputation and legacy, has become overwhelming,” he explains.
“The pain it has caused my wife of 43 years and my five children, whom I have always loved, nurtured, and provided for, is simply too much to bear. Every person has a breaking point. I have reached mine. I authorized this lawsuit because I can no longer remain silent,” he adds.
Jakes, 68, filed his defamation lawsuit against 58-year-old Duane Youngblood last November, a day after he suffered “a slight health incident,” which he said almost killed him while preaching.
Duane Youngblood claimed in interviews with internet personality Larry Reid on his “Larry Reid Live” show on Oct. 28 and Nov. 3, 2024, that Jakes assaulted him when he was about 18 or 19 years old.
The younger Youngblood told Reid that he had been talking with Jakes for about two hours at the home of an older adult clergywoman, where he was staying during a local church revival approximately 40 years ago when Jakes tried to kiss him.
The morning after the encounter, Youngblood, who is now a registered sex offender who served time for abusing minors while he served as their pastor, alleges Jakes called his home and intimated that he wanted him to become a local sex partner.
“My mother answers the phone, and she says to me, ‘Duane, it’s Elder Jakes.’ Jakes and I get on that phone and when I get on that telephone, I can hear water. He is sitting in a bathtub, and in that thing, he says to me, without any hesitation, ‘there’s three things I need you to do. The first one is, when I come to Pittsburgh, you’re going to be the only person I sleep with. The second one is, you can’t sleep with anybody else because I don’t want to give my wife anything. And thirdly, I will take care of you the rest of your life,” Youngblood claimed during his interview with Reid.
Days after making those allegations public, Jakes’ attorneys said an attorney representing Youngblood sent a demand letter to him on Nov. 24, 2024, demanding $6 million “to ‘resolve this matter quickly and privately;’ otherwise, Youngblood would bring a lawsuit against Bishop Jakes for sexual assault and harassment.”
Jakes argues in his Feb. 14 affidavit that he could barely afford to financially support himself and his family around the time Duane Youngblood claims he offered to pay him for exclusive sexual favours. Jakes contends it doesn’t make sense why he would offer to financially support a young man in exchange for sexual favours.
“This assertion is not only ludicrous; it is a bald-faced lie. To be clear: while I occasionally travelled to Pennsylvania around 1986 to preach at area churches that were part of the Greater Emanuel International Fellowship network, I never tried to corner, grab, or kiss any teenagers,” Jakes insists.
“I never phoned Duane Youngblood to proposition him for sex in exchange for financial support. And I never groomed, sexually abused, sexually assaulted, and engaged in predatory conduct of a sexual nature towards Duane Youngblood. I never apologized to Youngblood for any such conduct because it did not happen.”
Jakes claims that Richard Youngblood is simply trying to get revenge because he refused to give him a job for which he was unqualified.
“He hasn’t been able to maintain a job, he has multiple children with different women, and a felony conviction for failure to pay child support. It’s difficult to respect a man who doesn’t take care of his children. In all my years, I have never initiated a lawsuit against anyone. We filed this lawsuit against individuals who were supposed to be men of God but are clearly not,” Jakes adds in the affidavit.
“The catalyst for this action was not simply the nature of the accusations but the relentless attacks by the overzealous blogger. I have faced many attacks in my life, but none like this. Even so, I feel compelled to stand up against these bullies,” Jakes notes, pointing fingers at internet personality Larry Reid.
“They are working in concert, relentlessly targeting me and my family with vicious, unfounded attacks. I spent the past year enduring their vicious attacks, lies, rumours of my wife leaving, rumours of my church abandoning me, and so much more. … All of this was happening while I found myself helping my wife recover from knee replacement surgery and while helping my brother navigate kidney failure,” he continues.
“This unwarranted stress brought me to a place of having a health crisis on stage in front of my entire congregation. As a guy who’d had no previous health challenges, this near-death experience was a turning point for me. Enough is enough!”
