Expert Sees Trouble for Swaggart : Televangelist: He was able to weather the storm of 1988 scandal but new incident will find his followers drifting away for good, sociologist says.

Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, accompanied by a prostitute when he was stopped in Indio on traffic charges, may be facing the “beginning of the end” of his television ministry, an authority on TV preachers said Saturday.

Sociologist Jeffrey Hadden of the University of Virginia, author of two books on televangelists, said Swaggart’s only hope is that public scrutiny of the Friday incident may be overshadowed by the nationally televised U.S. Senate hearings on sexual harassment accusations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

Hadden said Swaggart had “managed to stabilize” a reduced television following after the 1988 scandal over his encounter with a New Orleans prostitute. His teary, televised confession of an unspecified “sin” was accepted by many loyalists.

“But the second time around, he’ll find they won’t stick around,” Hadden said.

To make matters worse for the Baton Rouge, La.-based evangelist, he faces a series of lawsuits by his creditors and a $10-million court judgment against him and co-defendants for defaming preacher Marvin Gorman.

Swaggart’s latest troubles followed minor traffic citations Friday morning in Indio.

In a section of the desert city under surveillance for drug and prostitution violations, the evangelist was stopped by police and cited for driving on the wrong side of the street, operating an unregistered car and not wearing a seat belt. Swaggart signed a promise to appear in Indio Municipal Court on or before Nov. 15.

The passenger with him, identified as Rosemary Garcia by Indio Police Chief Jerry Graves, told KNBC-TV that Swaggart asked her if she wanted a ride. What he wanted, Garcia said, was sex. “I mean that’s why he stopped me, that’s what I do. I’m a prostitute,” she said.

She told KMIR-TV and the Desert Sun newspaper, both of Palm Springs, that she asked him, “Your place or mine?” But she said that Swaggart was nervous and replied, “Let’s just drive around.” Garcia said Swaggart asked if there was a motel nearby that showed pornographic movies.

Noticing a police car behind him, Swaggart tried to push Playboy and some other magazines beneath his car seat, but was stopped for driving erratically.

Police Chief Graves said Swaggart was “cooperative” and passed a sobriety test.

No statement has been issued by Swaggart, who was staying at the Indian Wells home of Clyde Fuller, a board member of the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.

William Treeby, Swaggart’s New Orleans-based attorney, had no comment on Saturday.