Jury Says Swaggart Must Pay Part of Damage Award

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart spread lies that helped ruin fellow television preacher Marvin Gorman’s ministry, and must pay his share of a $10-million damage award, a jury ruled Thursday night.

Gorman had sued for $90 million, claiming Swaggart and several co-defendants brought down Gorman’s ministry in 1987 with false statements about his sex life.

The jury said Gorman is entitled to $1 million in personal damages and his bankrupt ministry is entitled to $9 million. The jury will return today to decide how much each defendant must pay.

The verdict said Swaggart, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and the Rev. Michael Indest defamed Gorman. The jury also said Swaggart, the ministry and church attorney William Treeby conspired to inflict emotional harm on Gorman.

Indest was named as a conspirator, but was not a defendant in the case. He settled with Gorman prior to the beginning of the nine-week trial.

Gorman claimed that Swaggart and other defendants spread lies that he had had several affairs, got him expelled from the Assemblies of God and eventually caused the bankruptcy of his New Orleans ministry.

Swaggart and other defendants say they told the truth. They produced two women as witnesses who said they had sex with Gorman--one a fellow minister’s wife who had gone to him for counseling, the other a woman who said he pressured her into intercourse after accusing her of being a lesbian.