posted on May 8, 2004 09:27:51 AM new
Bill Clinton's legacy now a defense strategy.
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May 7, 2004, 1:16AM
Ex-pastor tells jury affair was 'a Bill Clinton thing'
By ANDREW TILGHMAN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
A former pastor accused of sexually assaulting a church member denied wrongdoing Thursday, telling jurors he and the woman had a consensual affair that could be described as "a Bill Clinton thing."
"It was a mutual desire for each other. We were drawn to one another," said James Tucker, former pastor of Abundant Life Church in north Houston.
Tucker, 53, is charged under a 1995 state law that makes it a crime for "spiritual advisers" to exploit their followers' "emotional dependency" for sex.
He is accused of performing sexual acts on several occasions with a woman who sought marital counseling in his office in 1998.
The woman, who was 27 then, contends that she felt manipulated into their sexual relationship. If convicted, Tucker could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
The former minister recalled a conversation in 1999 when the woman's husband confronted him about the sexual relationship. The husband said he understood the relationship to have been "like a Bill Clinton thing," which Tucker felt was an appropriate description, he testified.
Tucker said he interpreted the remark to mean the encounters had involved oral sex.
Tucker also denied allegations leveled by two women who testified Tuesday. They said he fondled them in the early 1980s when they were high school students and he was a youth minister at a church in Humble.
"What they said happened, didn't happen," he told jurors, explaining that he kissed the girls but did nothing more. "I would say how they characterized what happened is a lie."
One was about 14 years old when he kissed her, Tucker said.
Prosecutor Kelly Siegler showed jurors a letter that Tucker wrote to one of the women in 1984. In the letter, Tucker repeatedly apologized for his conduct, which he did not specify.
"I've gone through so much emotional agony over what happened because I caused you so much hurt and pain," he wrote to the woman when he was 32 and she was an 18-year-old college freshman.
Tucker denied Thursday that he had fondled the young woman.
"This letter is an apology for passionately kissing" her, he testified.
Tucker was the last witness called by defense attorney Dick DeGuerin. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating today.
Tucker was living in a Spring home valued at $350,000 at the time of his resignation from the church in February 2002, Siegler said.
The 12-year-old Abundant Life Church, at 713 East Airtex, disbanded after his resignation. He and his wife now live in Dallas.
Tucker was arrested and charged after the accuser and her husband contacted police in 2002.
"The Secret Service has announced it is doubling its protection for John Kerry. You can understand why — with two positions on every issue, he has twice as many people mad at him." —Jay Leno
posted on May 8, 2004 11:25:39 AM new
The guy got what he deserved....for taking advantage of/stepping over the line with someone who came to him for help.....
but I just LOVE his defense. LOL....same man many teens have attributed oral sex to 'not really being sex'.
