Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991 TAG: 9102130411
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said Bakker was fairly tried and convicted on 24 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy. But it ruled that the federal judge who sentenced him abused his discretion and violated Bakker's due-process rights by making scathing remarks about "money-grubbing preachers."
"I am just delighted," said Bakker's wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, from her New Covenant Ministries church near Orlando, Fla. "I just talked to my husband and the whole prison was excited for him. He was in a no-smoking class, and they broke in on the middle of the class and said, `Jim, Jim, you've won your appeal!' "
Bakker's attorneys said they want to secure bail so the founder of the PTL Network could be freed from the federal prison in Rochester, Minn., until his resentencing. Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law School professor who spearheaded the appeal, said he believes the 45-year sentence was so overly stiff that he will argue that Bakker be set free, for time served.
"If you compare his sentence to those in the Wall Street cases, it was way out of line," he said.
Justice Department officials said they intend to fight for an "appropriate" sentence. "Obviously, we're gratified the conviction sticks," said spokesman Doug Tillet.
Bakker, the charismatic TV preacher who fell from grace in a sex and hush-money scandal, was convicted of fleecing his flock of millions of dollars in a 1989 trial.
"Those of us who do have religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests," said U.S. District Judge Robert Potter, who on Oct. 24, 1989, sentenced Bakker to 45 years in prison and fined him $500,000. "I just feel like there was massive fraud here and it's going to have to be punished."
But the appeals court ruled Tuesday that judges cannot punish defendants for offending the judges' religious beliefs. "Whether or not the trial judge has a religion is irrelevant for purposes of sentencing," said the opinion. "The imposition of a lengthy prison term here may have reflected the fact that the court's own sense of religious propriety had somehow been betrayed."
Tammy Faye Bakker said she learned the news in a phone call Tuesday from sobbing daughter Tammy Sue. "Everyone is so excited and we're deeply grateful. And I believe that before this is over, Jim is going to be totally exonerated of all wrongdoing," she said.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell "was very pleased with today's ruling," said Mark DeMoss, Falwell's administrative assistant.
Falwell, who ran Bakker's Heritage USA facility in South Carolina briefly after the scandals forced Bakker out, "has said every since Bakker was sentenced originally that the sentence was excessive and unreasonable, no matter what one thinks about Bakker," DeMoss said.
DeMoss said Falwell believes Bakker "should face some consequences for his actions, but certainly not 45 years."
Former bodyguard Don Hardester, who has been corresponding with Bakker in prison, said nothing would surprise him now.
"Prison has made him even more determined," he said. "I know this sounds weird, but I expect him one day to be as big as ever. The little guy's a fighter, and when he's the underdog, that's when he's at his best."
by CNB