Bakker Underpaid, Ex-Aide Testifies

A former aide at the PTL ministry testified Thursday that she still thinks founder Jim Bakker was underpaid, even though she was laid off during the period he is accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses.

Elizabeth Sacco told a U.S. District Court jury that she is still loyal to Bakker “and I’m proud of it. I feel loyalty because I’ve seen what this man built. A greedy man doesn’t have his hair turn gray in five years.

“I wouldn’t have taken his job for $10 million a year.”

Sacco, who answered correspondence for the ministry until she was laid off in 1986, was one of the first witnesses to testify for Bakker as the defense phase of the fraud trial got under way.

The defense had presented videotapes of old “PTL Club” shows before calling the first witnesses.