Nation IN BRIEF : NORTH CAROLINA : Trial to Start for Former PTL Pastor
A former PTL pastor faces trial today in Charlotte, N. C., on 12 counts of lying to the federal grand jury that indicted television evangelist Jim Bakker. The Rev. Samuel Johnson is charged with lying when he said he could not remember the source of $10,000 that became the initial payment to keep Jessica Hahn from talking about her 15-minute sexual encounter with Bakker in 1980. Johnson faces up to 60 years in prison. He will face Assistant U.S. Atty. Jerry Miller, who won Bakker’s conviction last October, and U.S. District Judge Robert Potter, who sentenced Bakker to 45 years in prison.
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