Tyrone Blackburn, the legal professional representing Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, the person accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs of working a intercourse trafficking ring, has set his sights on one other high-profile determine: Bishop T.D. Jakes.
In a lawsuit filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Jakes accused Duane Youngblood, Blackburn’s consumer, of defamation and civil conspiracy.
Youngblood, a lifetime registered intercourse offender and two-time convicted felon, just lately made allegations on the podcast Larry Reid Reside, claiming Jakes had groomed and tried to sexually abuse him when Youngblood was a younger minister.
Jakes, nevertheless, has forcefully denied the allegations and is preventing again with a defamation lawsuit, calling the claims “patently false” and “malicious.”
Jakes’s lawsuit describes Youngblood’s statements as a “fastidiously deliberate effort by a convicted legal, and people performing in live performance with him, to rewrite historical past to deflect blame and accountability for his reprehensible and legal conduct.
Jakes additionally accuses Youngblood of making an attempt to publicly smear a famend and eminently revered non secular chief in a blatant and specific try to extort him for tens of millions of {dollars}.”
Youngblood’s allegations have been broadcast on two broadly considered podcast episodes on October 28 and November 3.
In accordance with the grievance, the episodes have been titled, “Larry Reid Reside INTERVIEWS Duane Youngblood: ‘The Abused change into The Abuser.’”
The lawsuit alleges Youngblood made statements claiming that “Bishop Jakes groomed, sexually assaulted, sexually abused, and preyed on” him.
“These accusations are obviously false,” the lawsuit states. “Bishop Jakes by no means kissed or tried to kiss Youngblood, by no means cornered him or compelled him into any scenario (sexual or in any other case), and positively by no means informed him that he wished to sleep with him or had any dialog of a sexual nature in any respect with him. The interactions described by Youngblood throughout his LRL interviews on October 28 and November 3 by no means occurred—interval.”
The lawsuit additional claims that after the second podcast, Blackburn, performing on behalf of Youngblood, despatched a letter to Jakes on November 15, demanding $6 million to “resolve this matter rapidly and privately.” In accordance with the grievance, this demand amounted to tried extortion.
“Days after the second podcast, on info and perception, the Defendants retained a lawyer in New York to characterize Youngblood in a blatant try at a ‘cash seize,’” the submitting alleges. “The motivation of the ‘demand’ was clear: pay tens of millions of {dollars}; in any other case, the podcast technique and different related techniques of making an attempt to publicly harass and disgrace Bishop Jakes would proceed.”
The lawsuit additionally particulars the toll the allegations have taken on Jakes.
It mentions that the pastor “suffered a medical disaster on stage in the midst of his Sunday service” on November 24 throughout a sermon at The Potter’s Home church in Dallas, attributing this incident to the stress attributable to Youngblood’s claims and the widespread consideration they’ve obtained.
Jakes is looking for damages for defamation, emotional misery and punitive damages.
The lawsuit asserts that Youngblood’s claims have been “accompanied with malice, wantonness, and a aware need to trigger harm” and have been made “heedlessly and with reckless and willful indifference” to the reality.
