Bakker Given Free Run of Prison Grounds

PTL founder Jim Bakker will have full access to the grounds at the prison facility where he is undergoing psychological evaluation because he has not been convicted of anything, a spokeswoman said today.

U.S. District Judge Robert Potter suspended Bakker’s fraud and conspiracy trial in its fourth day Thursday after being told by Bakker’s attorney that his client was found cowering in a fetal position with his head under a couch and had hallucinated.

Potter ordered the fallen evangelist to undergo testing at the Federal Correction Institution in Butner to see if he is mentally competent to stand trial.

No specific information on Bakker’s condition will be released, Sharon Orr, a spokeswoman at the facility, said in a telephone interview.

“About all I can tell you is he will go under extensive psychological evaluation,” Orr said. A typical evaluation takes 30 to 45 days, but “it has not been determined at this time how long this particular evaluation will take,” she said.

Orr said Bakker will be allowed to wear street clothes, although he was issued an orange prison jumpsuit on his arrival.

Tammy Faye Arrives

Bakker’s wife, Tammy Faye, arrived at the federal prison psychiatric hospital in midafternoon, accompanied by Bakker’s sister, Donna Puckett, and two unidentified persons. Mrs. Bakker, sitting in the front passenger seat, frowned at dozens of waiting reporters as the car sped through the gates.

Bakker, handcuffed and clad in the jumpsuit, was given a standing ovation Thursday night by a large crowd of inmates when he was taken to a mental health housing unit, the Durham Morning Herald reported today.

As Bakker walked past a group of patients, one of them spoke to him and Bakker smiled back, an unidentified source at the correctional institution told the newspaper.