Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 13, 1992 TAG: 9203130167
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
"I am so tired . . . I am lonely . . . and I am hurting," Bakker said in a letter sent to members of her church.
She wants the divorce because she can't bear the separation and the uncertainty of when her husband may be released, said Jim Toms, a Hendersonville attorney who represents her husband.
Bakker, 52, went to prison in 1989 on federal fraud and conspiracy convictions stemming from a financial scandal involving his PTL television ministry. He was first sentenced to 45 years, but an appeals court threw out the sentence and a judge in August cut it to 18 years.
Under parole guidelines, Bakker will be eligible for parole in 1995, four years earlier than under his previous sentence. He's being held at the federal prison in Rochester, Minn.
"Jim doesn't want the divorce but at this point this in the only thing he can give her," Toms said. "He loves her dearly and remains committed to her."
Prison officials said requests for comment from Bakker must be made in writing and wouldn't be answered for at least 48 hours.
Toms, who released Tammy Bakker's letter, said she didn't want to comment further. He said he didn't know when the divorce would be filed, but expected it to be done in a Florida court. Bakker lives in Orlando, Fla., where she runs New Covenant Church, though she said in her letter that her daughter would take her place there.
"For years, I have been pretending that everything is all right, when in fact I hurt all the time," she wrote. "I cannot pretend anymore. Pretending becomes too hard on the physical body. I have been suffering with high blood pressure, anemia, asthma, hyperventilation . . ."
by CNB