Todd Bentley sexual misconduct allegations
widen to Pakistan
By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post 
Evangelist Todd Bentley of Fresh Fire USA | Screenshot: freshfireusa.com
Fresh Fire USA
Sexual misconduct allegations against Fresh Fire USA leader Todd Bentley have now snowballed to include reports from victims overseas, according to Stephen Powell, the estranged protégé of the popular and controversial faith healer, whom he dismissed in a report last Thursday as “not fit for public ministry.”
3 Girls in Pakistan
“I’ve just had a written statement submitted by a pastor last night of all kinds of stuff, including how he is talking to multiple leaders in Pakistan that are claiming that Todd sexually assaulted three girls over there … I don’t know the exact nature of it but they used the word sexually assaulted. … We’re trying now to get the written statement from the (Pakistani) pastors themselves,” Powell told The Christian Post in an interview Monday.
He said they were being very careful in handling these allegations because “these girls, they are in the Muslim world. It is a very sensitive issue.”
Ben Burges of Healing Word Ministries, who said he was ordained under Fresh Fire USA in 2016, also mentioned the allegations in a letter cited by Christian News Network, noting that Bentley is “no longer welcome in Pakistan among the leaders and churches he works with” as a result of the allegations. Burges reportedly traveled with Bentley to Pakistan in 2017.
Burges also noted that during his travels with Bentley, he witnessed the evangelist jesting in a crude sexual manner with a female intern.
“Todd’s response was, ‘Oh, get over it. You better get used to [sexual act] soon; you are about to get married,” Burges noted.
“My concern is that if these things are not handled properly by leadership that Todd cannot get the help he needs,” Burges added. “There are people that are sexually scarred for life, and if leaders don’t handle this properly it will be because of the negligence of leaders that choose to not handle this appropriately.”
A Fresh Fire USA representative told CP Wednesday morning that Bentley would not be doing any interviews and when asked about the allegations coming out of Pakistan said, “I can’t respond for him.”
Perverse sexual addiction
Powell, who leads the Lion of Light Ministries, first teased bits of a yet to be made public 30-page report on Facebook last Thursday in which he alleged Bentley has a “perverse sexual addiction” that has driven him to prey on interns in 2013 and beyond.
In his Facebook statement, Powell, who believes he got a mandate from God to call wayward Christian leaders to repentance, alleged Bentley “has an appetite for a variety of sexual sins, including both homosexual and heterosexual activity.” He also accused the evangelist of indulging in an open marriage with his wife Jessa. His report further criticized Bentley’s restoration process stemming from moral failure in 2008.
The 30-page report is said to have been shared with more than 100 leaders in the charismatic movement and some who have read it call it “damning.”
“I have seen the report. It’s bad. It’s bad,” Apostle Derrick Gates of Derrick Gates Ministries, who described himself as having working relationships with both Powell and Bentley, told CP Tuesday.
Powell confirmed with CP that Gates, who said he was also previously a member of Bentley’s camp, had joined him in confronting Bentley with evidence from the report earlier this summer. Bentley, Powell said, initially denied the allegations until he later began admitting to only parts of it.
Bentley has since publicly admitted to sending suggestive text messages to his interns in 2013 but vehemently denied any misconduct since that time. He also denied any homosexual conduct while arguing that many of the allegations made against him in Powell’s report are unproven, false and exaggerated.
Hard to deny
Some charismatic leaders argue, however, that based on what they have read in Powell’s report it might be difficult for Bentley to counter. “My understanding from Stephen is that anything that made it into the report was stuff that had substantial evidence to back it up and people that were willing to back it up,” Gates said.
“Is there a possibility that some people may have had an axe to grind and make something up? That’s a possibility. But he (Bentley) would have to prove that they [all] made it up. When you look at that report, you have I don’t know how many different people and different stories that there are and they, the people, don’t know each other and they have the same type of stories. To me, that’s what makes it so damning. You have all these different stories and they all line up. I don’t know how you defend against that. I hope he can,” Gates said.
Powell said he has evidence showing that Bentley’s alleged predation continued beyond 2013 despite the evangelist completing a years-long restoration process in 2012 that was overseen by Rick Joyner, author of The Final Quest and founder of Morning Star Ministries and Heritage International Ministries; Bill Johnson, senior leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California; and Jack Deere, former leader of Wellspring Church in North Richland Hills, Texas.
Bentley was supposedly restored after he admitted to an emotional relationship with a staff member in 2008, which resulted in him separating from his now ex-wife Shonnah. It was also the same year that Bentley emerged as a superstar in the charismatic movement at the Lakeland Revival in Florida, which attracted an average of 30,000 or more people each week that came from across the U.S. and around the world.
In an open letter published on Tuesday, Ron Cantor, host of the “Out of Zion” television show on GOD TV, who leads Messiah's Mandate International, said there was strong evidence that Bentley has not been completely honest about his repentance.
I had the misfortune of seeing Bentley and others from Fresh Fire back in the early 2000s after being invited by friends. I left early, not convinced that there was anything of God happening, but a relentless pursuit of my money.
I'm not against the charismatic church, just the lack of discernment that seems to appear too frequently.
Marlon Brando confronted Michael Jackson
over sexual abuse allegations
A Hollywood icon made Michael Jackson cry when he grilled him about his sex life, it’s been claimed in a new podcast
Rob Bailey-MilladoNew York Post
Marlon Brando and Michael Jackson chatted about sex, child abuse and personal relationships during a bizarre dinner conversation unearthed in a new podcast, it was revealed today.
The conversation happened while Jackson was under investigation in 1994 for child molestation allegations, the podcast Telephone Stories: The Trials of Michael Jackson will reveal in its final episode.
Brandon Ogborn, one of the podcast’s creator-producers, obtained a transcript of the bombshell sworn statement and verified its authenticity with prosecutor Lauren Weis, who investigated Jackson during her 23 years as a prosecutor with the LA County district attorney, the LA Times reported.
Marlon Brando waves after speaking at a Michael Jackson concert in New York. Source: News Corp Australia
The Godfather star shared details of an alleged dinner conversation with the king of pop, saying he delved into the singer’s sexuality and his embattled relationship with father Joe Jackson — reducing the 19-time Grammy winner to tears.
Prosecutors heard rumours of a “special relationship” between the singer and the Last Tango in Paris star, the outlet reported. Jackson was teaching Brando to dance, and in return Brando was teaching Jackson about the art of acting.
Ogborn said Brando differs from other people who’ve spoken out about Jackson in several crucial ways: He’s famous, rich enough not to need anything — and “he’s also a weirdo, like Michael Jackson. So he’s to me a weirdo who understands another weirdo in a weird world.”
Jackson, who died in 2009, was twice investigated on charges of child molestation. He went uncharged in 1994 but went to trial in 2005 and was acquitted on all counts.
James Safechuck claims he was sexually abused by Michael Jackson.Source:Supplied
The podcaster said after reading the “loosey-goosey” sworn transcript, “It felt like it was a hot potato. (Brando) probably would be cancelled if he was around now.”
The finale of Telephone Stories streams on Monday on podcast platform Luminary. The first 12 episodes are already available.
In the finale, Ogborn reads from the sworn transcript of Brando detailing a conversation with Jackson at Neverland Ranch.
Here are some of the most revealing Brando comments from the LA Times report on the podcast:
• “We were talking about human emotions and where it all comes from. I could see from the way he behaved — he talked like that, and he speaks in a very peculiar way for a man who is as old as my oldest son, 35. And he didn’t want me to swear.”
• “I had asked him if he was a virgin and he sort of laughed and giggled, and he called me Brando,” the actor added. “He said, ‘Oh, Brando’. I said, ‘Well, what do you do for sex?’ And he was acting fussy and embarrassed.”
• “He said he hated his father and started to cry. So I pulled back. I started to tiptoe. I realised that he was in trouble with his life because he was living in a never-never land.”
• “I said, ‘Well, who are your friends?’ He said, ‘I don’t know anybody my own age. I don’t like anybody my own age’. I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’. He was crying hard enough that … I tried to assuage him. I tried to help him all I could.”
• Brando told prosecutors: “With this mode of behaviour that’s been going on, I think it’s pretty reasonable to conclude that he may have had something to do with kids. My impression was that he didn’t want to answer because he was frightened to answer me.”
'The Voice' Alum Jordan Pruitt Suing Former Manager, Hollywood Records, Disney Over Alleged Child Sex Abuse
by Gil Kaufman, Billboard
Jordan Pruitt has filed a lawsuit against her former manager Keith Thomas, accusing the producer and songwriter of sexually abusing her. The suit also names Hollywood Records and parent company The Walt Disney Company, accusing them of failing to prevent the abuse from Thomas, who Pruitt claims began sexually abusing her when she was 14. Thomas' company, Levosia Entertainment, is also named in the suit.
"3 weeks ago as 'Jane Doe' I filed a lawsuit against my molester and those who enabled him," the singer, who was a contestant on Season 3 of The Voice, posted on social media Tuesday.
"No more Jane Doe. I am Jordan Pruitt."
The suit was filed on Aug. 30 and seeks damages for allegations of sexual battery of a minor, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, negligent supervision, negligent retention/hiring, negligent failure to warn train or educate and breach of fiduciary duty. A copy of the suit obtained by Billboard alleges that Hollywood encouraged the then-underage to work with Thomas as a mentor and producer and allowed him to be "unsupervised" with her.
It claims that Thomas, acted with "full knowledge, consent and assistance of Disney and Hollywood Records to exploit these relationships in order to gain access to Plaintiff, and to set up, facilitate, and arrange meetings and encounters between he and the minor Plaintiff for the purpose of Keith Thomas engaging in childhood sexual abuse of Plaintiff."
In a statement sent to Billboard, Pruitt's attorney, Keith Davidson, said his client, "like far too many child stars, was exploited by the very people who should have been protecting her. Jordan’s innocence was robbed from her as she was systematically groomed, molested, and controlled by a predator employed by Disney, a company that sells happiness to children. Disney had a duty to protect Jordan from Keith Thomas, and failed at every step. Jordan can never get back the innocence that was stolen from her, nor can she erase the trauma of this tragedy, but she is committed to making sure no other young women fall victim to child predators employed and protected by one of the largest entertainment corporations in the world. Jordan is brave to find the courage to come forward to take on such a large conglomerate. She like so many victims with their own #metoo story must be supported."
Pruitt also claims in the suit that Thomas was controlling of her career -- including engaging in what are described as "grooming" of the singer to be "accepting of the sexual abuse he so desired." Other alleged acts Thomas took in order to groom Pruitt include controlling her "bookings, studio sessions, tour schedules, public relations and media requests" -- as well as forbidding her from communicating with boys her age, "deleting male contacts from her cell phone," and telling the singer that he "loved her" and that they were "soul mates." The complaint also claims that Thomas was engaged to be married to a woman of "similar age to him" at the time.
“The beating-down process was soon repeatedly followed by a period of incredible showering of attention, compliments, flirting touching and assurances that Thomas ‘loved [Pruitt]'," reads the suit, which also alleges Thomas made hurtful comments about the singer's "weight, looks, voice, songwriting ability, maturity and intelligence.” The suit claims that the alleged abuse began when Pruitt was 14 and continued until just before her 16th birthday, with allegations that Thomas took the singer's virginity and that the abuse took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, as well as on sound stages at the Warner Bros. lot, in artists' trailers, hotel rooms and parked cars.
More details are described here. They are just to graphic and disgusting for this blog.
Before, during and after the alleged sexual abuse, the suit claims that Thomas "threatened, intimidated and coerced the minor Plaintiff, who was under extreme duress due to his actions, into not informing anyone of her sexual abuse or pursuing legal action therefore. These threats included telling Plaintiff that she would be physically harmed if she ever told anyone, that she would be taken away from her parents, that her career in entertainment would be over and that she would get in trouble with law enforcement and go to jail, forcing Plaintiff to promise not to tell anyone. As a result of these threats, Plaintiff believed her life would be in grave danger if she disclosed any facts surrounding the abuse she suffered and was suffering."
Pruitt signed to Hollywood Records in 2005 and released two albums for the label, 2007's No Ordinary Girl and 2008's Permission to Fly. Her debut single, "Outside Looking In," was released in 2006, the same year she hit the road with The Cheetah Girls and on the High School Musical: The Concert tour. She appeared on The Voice in Sept. 24, 2012, singing Katy Perry's "The One That Got Away" and was chosen for Christina Aguilera's team; she was eliminated a month later. The singer announced her retirement from music in Dec. 2017.
In a Facebook post since reportedly made private, Pruitt wrote in December 2018 that she had been molested as a teen, though she didn't identify her alleged abuser at the time. The suit claims that Thomas threatened Pruitt that their "love was a secret" meant to be kept from her parents and others, while also allegedly grooming the singer's mother by spending, "extended periods of time speaking with her in person and on the phone, telling her intimate details about his life and his past, in an attempt to gain a 'closeness' with Plaintiff’s mother and earn her trust so that she would allow him to spend time alone with Plaintiff."
At press time, spokespeople for Disney, Hollywood and Thomas could not be reached for comment. In seeking unspecified damages, the suit claims that Pruitt suffered lost wages, while requesting relief for attorney's fees, statutory and punitive damages, as well as "psychological, mental and emotional distress, including but not limited to night-terrors, stress, fear, shame, humiliation, depression, physical distress, anxiety, depression, sadness, anger, trust issues, and control issues. She has and will continue to incur expenses for mental and medical care due to the abuse, according to proof at trial."
The suit seeks a jury trial. Pruitt says she's currently writing a book entitled AA: Abuse Anonymous.
South Korea Supreme Court finds ex-presidential candidate guilty of rapes
By Elizabeth Shim(UPI) -- A South Korean politician who once ran for president has been found guilty of sex abuse by the country's highest court.
An was acquitted in August 2018 of sexually assaulting Kim Ji-eun, his secretary, a decision that outraged local feminists and activists. Activists say Kim was a "temp worker" whose limited rights in the workplace allowed a powerful man like An to exploit her during his presidential campaign in 2017.
An was accused of and now stands guilty of raping Kim four times from July 2017 to February 2018, and for violating her rights in the workplace six times.
On Monday, Seoul's Supreme Court said the evidence from the victim illustrates sex abuse.
"The victim's testimony is deemed credible given that it is consistent and very detailed without parts that are inconsistent," the court said.
The National Council on Sexual Violence said at a rally held outside the Supreme Court on Monday the high court ruling is a "great victory" for the "everyday Kim Ji-euns" of society.
Last year, the Seoul Western District Court had said evidence from local prosecutors was "not sufficient" to prove the "violation of sexual freedoms." The Supreme Court's ruling on Monday reflects a more recent decision from a lower court that accounted for gender inequality and unequal relationships in the South Korean workplace.
Kyunghyang Shinmun reported the 2018 court decision reflected the highly limited way in which Article 303 of the Criminal Code, an anti-exploitation law, was applied. The law largely relates to "legal minors and the disabled," and is less applicable to women who are subject to gender discrimination, according to the report.
The 2019 ruling also accounted for the "use of force" during a specific incident that took place on July 30, 2017, at a venue called the "Russia Hotel," the report says.
Last year's court ruling concluded force was not used when An sexually assaulted Kim in a hotel room, an opinion that was overruled, according to the report.
Neymar sexual assault accuser indicted
for extortion, fraud in Brazil
© Reuters / Luisa Gonzalez
The woman at the center of sexual assault allegations against Brazil superstar Neymar has been indicted by Sao Paulo police on charges related to falsifying statements regarding to accusations she made against the player in May.
Model Najila Trindade and a former partner of hers have both received indictments which allege that the pair conducted procedural fraud, slanderous denunciation and extortion as part of what appears to be a scheme designed to defraud Neymar from money, according to reports.
This echoes statements made by Neymar, his father and agent in the days following the May incident in which the player said he was the victim of extortion and that the incident was little more than a "setup."
Trinidade had told police that she was the victim of sexual assault by the player, who had arranged to meet her in a Paris hotel after an exchange of social media messages had taken place and later confirmed her story in several interviews.
Once the accusation became public, Neymar stated in an Instagram Live video that their brief relationship was entirely consensual.
"There was a relationship between a man and a woman between four walls. On the next day nothing happened," he said. "I hope investigators read the messages and see what happened."
The official investigation into the alleged assault was ended after officials determined that there was insufficient evidence to take it further.
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