NEW ORLEANS -- A long-delayed courtroom battle centered on the sex lives of television evangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Marvin Gorman is to begin in a Louisiana court Monday with the selection of jurors.
Gorman claims in a $90 million defamation suit filed in 1987 that Swaggart and others conspired to destroy his prosperous television ministry by spreading rumors he engaged in numerous adulterous affairs.
Gorman, who admitted one such indescretion and resigned from the Assemblies of God, retaliated by hiring a private investigator to photograph Swaggart in the company of a prostitute. The exposure of Swaggart's illicit trysts led to his being kicked out of the Assemblies of God and a precipitous decline in income of his multimillion dollar, worldwide television empire.
The trial in Orleans Parish Civil District Court is expected to last six to 10 weeks, according to lawyers in the case. Jury selection could take as long as two weeks, they said.
The defendants include Swaggart's wife, Frances, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries Inc., attorney William Treeby, Canal Street Assembly of God Inc. in New Orleans and its pastor, Tom Miller.
'Ninety-seven percent of this case is the adultery allegations,' Miller's attorney, Lawrence Mann, said in a hearing last week.
Gorman contends Swaggart was motivated by jealousy to destroy the competition of his growing television ministry based just 80 miles down the Mississippi River from the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries in Baton Rouge.
Gorman says lies about his sex life not only bankrupted his ministry but also drove him and his wife into bankruptcy. Since leaving the Assemblies of God, Gorman has formed an independent church in New Orleans, the Metropolitan Christian Centre. A week ago, Gorman returned to television to again compete head-to-head with Swaggart, at least on a local level.
Imprisoned former PTL television evangelist Jim Bakker also has accused Swaggart of bringing down his religious empire by exposing his extra-marital affair with church secretary Jessica Hahn.
Swaggart failed in attempts to keep pretrial documents and proceedings secret but won an important ruling last month to keep Gorman from using evidence about his own sexual indescretions.
Retired state District Judge Julian Bailes, who was called to preside over the case because of its anticipated length, said the evidence of Swaggart's sexual activities is irrelevant to the case.
Gorman, however, contends Swaggart's extra-marital sex life is important to his defense. In an interview on Cable News Network last month, Gorman said he still wants the evidence admitted.
'There's going to be a revelation about what Jimmy Swaggart meant when he stood on national television in February of 1988 and said, 'I have sinned,'' Gorman said.
Swaggart made the tearful confession, without saying what his sin was, before his congregation as the Assemblies of God was deciding how to discipline him. His eviction from the church was a result of the photos supplied the church by Gorman.
Along with the Gorman interview, CNN aired some of the 1987 color photographs of Swaggart and prostitute Debra Murphree in the parking lot of a New Orleans-area motel. Some photos showed Swaggart emerging from her room, with Murphree behind him.
