Anaheim Church Figure to Testify : Roper Ordered Before N.Y. Grand Jury in Minister Case

A Superior Court judge Wednesday ordered free-lance church consultant Paul Roper of Anaheim to appear before a New York grand jury next Thursday, despite his vigorous argument that it is unfair for New York officials to expect him there before his law school classes end in May.

Roper, who gained national prominence when he negotiated a $265,000 financial settlement for Jessica Hahn over her one-time sexual encounter with TV evangelist Jim Bakker, called the decision “needless persecution.”

Roper, 44, is wanted by the New York state’s attorney general’s office to testify in a state grand jury investigation in Albany against the Rev. Gene Profeta, Hahn’s Long Island minister.

While Profeta’s name is not listed in the affidavit seeking a California order for Roper to appear, the document does say Roper is wanted for questioning in allegations of tax fraud involving a minister in Massapequa, N.Y., whom Roper knows.

Roper said Profeta is the only Massapequa minister he knows. Published reports in the New York media have said that Profeta is a target of a grand jury investigation.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary listened to Roper at a hearing Tuesday in which he argued that appearing in New York before May 19 would be an undue hardship on him because he is in the final weeks of classes at Western State University College of Law. Roper conceded that New York officials had a legitimate right to consider him a material witness.

O’Leary asked Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg L. Prickett to contact New York officials and determine whether delaying Roper’s appearance would be a burden on the grand jury proceedings.

Then Wednesday morning, Roper lost his argument by winning his own motion.

Prickett was back in O’Leary’s court Wednesday, prepared to explain the situation. But Roper, acting as his own attorney, objected to any discussion Prickett had with New York officials as hearsay. The judge responded, “Then I have no choice but to order you to appear on the date proposed.”

Roper said later that he has nothing of substance to tell the New York grand jury about Profeta. “This whole thing is a needless waste of time,” he said.

No Delay in Testimony

But Prickett said the New York state attorney general’s office disagrees and is adamant that Roper’s testimony could not be delayed.

“They want to put on evidence in a certain sequence, and they don’t want the grand jury to hear witnesses out of order,” he said.

New York officials have refused to discuss the grand jury investigation with The Times. Roper was accused by Jim and Tammy Bakker of “blackmail,” and media reports called the $265,000 money that Roper collected from the Bakkers’ PTL Ministries for Hahn as “hush money.”

But Roper has called the money a legitimate payment to Hahn for the emotional distress she suffered when Bakker coerced her into having sex with him at a motel in Florida in 1980.

Hahn was a clerk for Profeta’s Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Massapequa, N.Y., at the time.

She has already testified before the grand jury regarding the Profeta investigation, according to Roper, but has not related to anyone the substance of her testimony.