Bakker Jurors Begin Deliberations Today

Jurors today will begin deliberating the fate of PTL founder Jim Bakker in his fraud and conspiracy trial after listening Tuesday to prosecution and defense lawyers portray him as a sinner and a saint.

Prosecutor Deborah Smith, in a scathing summation, called Bakker “a world-class master at half truths.” Bakker’s lawyer, Harold Bender, called him the “heart and soul” of PTL, once one of the nation’s largest television ministries.

Each side was given three hours to sum up their cases, after which U.S. District Court Judge Robert Potter, known as “Maximum Bob,” spent 45 minutes instructing the six women and six men on details of the indictment.

The 49-year-old defrocked evangelist faces 24 counts of wire and mail fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors charge that Bakker and aides diverted $3.7 million from the sale of partnerships that typically cost $1,000 apiece and were supposed to grant the contributors annual vacations for life at Heritage USA, a Christian theme park near here. Sales of the partnerships continued even though there was inadequate lodging for the partners, prosecutors contend.

Defense lawyers, in their summation, asserted that testimony had shown that many of the partners were satisfied.

At one point Bender, speaking in a low, passionate voice, asked the jurors how they would feel if videotapes of their own ministers’ services were shown to the public as were tapes of Bakker’s PTL broadcasts. Money frequently was the subject of the broadcasts.

He implored jurors in this Bible Belt state to understand that “there is more to this ministry than the offerings, than the collections.”

Bender asserted that Bakker deserved his huge salary, his six-figure bonuses and the lavish life style they bought. He said “the issue properly should be not the way the money was spent, but was the money earned.”

Urged to Vote Conscience

Bender’s colleague, George Davis, urged the jurors to vote their conscience. “If it turns out that one or more of you have a different opinion, even one against 11, you have a sworn duty to adhere to that. In our system, a defendant can’t be railroaded.”

He said Bakker was “conducting a ministry. He was doing what he thought was right for his ministry.”

But Smith portrayed Bakker’s conduct otherwise. Interspersing her closing arguments with videotape of his fund-raising appeals, she accused the TV preacher of perpetrating “a type of fraud that could be termed a pyramid scheme, and his defense is, ‘no, I was running a bait and switch operation.’ ”

Addressing the jury, Smith said: “What has unfolded before you the past two months was a corruption, an immense corruption.

“There may have been a time, years ago, when Mr. Bakker was a good man. You heard people testify to his good works in the ‘70s, but he changed and fell in love with worldly goods and schemed to raise money for that life style.

“What you saw was a man who used people to obtain money and power. The way he did this was he lied to people. The federal law is simple: You cannot lie to people to get them to send you money. You cannot tell them half-truths. If you do that and use the Postal Service or the television airways that cross state lines, then you will find yourself in this court.

“Mr. Bakker is a world-class master at half-truths.”

If convicted, Bakker could be sentenced to 120 years in prison and fined more than $5 million.

During parts of the summations, Bakker’s wife, Tammy Faye, making her first appearance in several weeks, gave way to tears and was comforted by friends and relatives.

The jurors who will decide Bakker’s fate listened attentively as Judge Potter delivered 45 minutes of instructions, saying he hoped that “everybody’s healthy and able to deliberate.”

Ten minutes later, Bakker left the courthouse by a side door.