Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 1, 1994                   TAG: 9407010103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BAKKER LEAVES JAIL TODAY FOR HALFWAY HOUSE

More than 41/2 years after going in for bilking his PTL followers, the fallen TV evangelist is due to walk out of a minimum-security federal prison in Jesup, Ga., and check into a halfway house in Asheville, N.C.

Bakker, 53, wasn't due to get out until Sept. 2. The early release was approved by federal prison officials in Georgia.

Bakker will work at an undisclosed Asheville business during the day and return to the halfway house at night. He will be picked up for work until he regains his driver's license.

If he follows the rules, Bakker will go free Dec. 1, having served a little more than 41/2 years of his eight-year sentence for conning 116,000 PTL supporters out of some $150 million.