Eddie Long Scandal: Rash of Legal Woes Continue for New Birth Pastor
The legal odyssey of Eddie Long continued last week when the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church minister requested repayment of settlement money from three accusers, defended a former security guard accused in a burglary at his church and wound up defaulting on a loan.
In early September, Long told the DeKalb County District Attorney Office to dismiss burglary charges against Anthony Boyd, his former security guard, who was among three young men accused of stealing about $100,000 worth of jewelry and electronics from Long's New Birth office in 2010, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (ACJ) reported.
Long wrote a letter to District Attorney Robert James requesting that the charges against Boyd be dropped. According to the DA's office spokesman, Erik Burton, the request is under consideration.
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Boyd was accused in the burglary charges along with Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg, who were among the men that sued Long last fall for sexual abuses. While Robinson was charged with burglary, Flagg was not charged due to a lack of evidence, AJC said.
A few weeks later, Long reached a settlement in a property lawsuit over a default on a $2 million loan he took out in August 2007 to buy a local gymnasium.
The bank loan was to be used to purchase the Hoops and Fitness gymnasium on Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro, Ga., reported WSBTV. Long and his two business partners formed the West Indies Holding Co. and each signed a document borrowing money to purchase the gymnasium building.
But the bank from which the loan was taken collapsed and was overtaken by State Bank & Trust, which reportedly filed a lawsuit against the trio in October 2010, demanding the remaining balance of $1.9 million, plus interests and fees.
The settlement required Long and his partners to pay back more than $1.8 million, plus interest, fees and property taxes, according to a separate report from the AJC.
Most recently, Long has said that he wants back some of the settlement money he gave Jamal Parris, Spencer LeGrande and Centino Kemp, who have all accused him of abusing his spiritual authority to engage them in sexual acts. The settlement had a confidentiality agreement, which Long's lawyers say the young men violated.
One of the young men, Centino Kemp, 22, revealed Sept. 14 that he had written a book about his affair with the megachurch pastor, titling the work "The First Lady."
Kemp described the book as a story of "love, lust, power, extravagant living and travel, betrayal, deceit, rape, down-low homosexual lifestyle, molestation, church corruption, secret societies, suicide attempts and religion."
Parris and LeGrande, both of whom used to attend New Birth's LongFellows Youth Academy and whom Long had selected to mentor, broke their silence in late August.
The two men also revealed that they were planning to release a tell-all book, which they described as more of therapeutic venture.
"I don't care if this book sells one copy. But if it's just for me, this is what my life looked like, this is my voice for the first time," Parris told WSB-TV.
