Bestiality enters Ministries case

A federal judge could decide today whether a controversial church leader stays in jail.

The Tampa Tribune, March 17, 1999
By Michael Fechter

TAMPA - Federal prosecutors painted a dangerous and ungodly image of Greater Ministries International founder Gerald Payne Tuesday in an attempt to keep him in jail pending a fraud and money laundering trial.

Of the seven people arrested Friday on charges of operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme out of a Sulphur Springs church, Payne is the only one still in jail.

Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Frank DeRosa testified that Payne has access to multiple passports and bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, Europe and South Africa. That, prosecutors say, means he might flee if granted bail.

And, DeRosa testified, Customs agents found 26 videotapes depicting bestiality in the luggage of the middle-aged church leader in Atlanta in December 1997. DeRosa provided no details, however.

Al Cunningham, Payne's attorney, objected to the claim about the tapes but didn't challenge it after a brief conference with U.S. Magistrate Thomas B. McCoun III.

Payne also poses a potential danger to the community, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Mosakowski said. DeRosa testified that Payne carries a gun in his boots and his car's glove compartment; Payne also didn't mention a 1979 felony conviction for lying to a grand jury when he applied for a concealed-weapons permit three years ago.

Payne was unarmed when agents arrested him outside his home Friday morning, but his wife and co-defendant, Betty Payne, was carrying a pistol.

McCoun will decide whether to release Payne today.

Payne and six co-defendants were arrested on a 20-count indictment that includes conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering charges. The indictment centers around Greater Ministries' money- doubling financial program.

According to a longtime friend and fellow pastor, Payne is honest and profoundly religious.

``Brother Gerald will lay down his life for God and the people of the church,'' said Richard Allen Churchwell of Frostproof.

Cunningham said Payne looks forward to his trial because he wants to prove that First Amendment rights protect Greater Ministries' religious beliefs.

But Mosakowski called those beliefs ``a particular brand of snake oil'' attached to an investment program.

Payne might have tampered with federal witnesses by offering a former associate a place in the church's own form of witness-protection program after learning she had testified before a grand jury, Mosakowski said.

``She would be protected from the government and given certain financial benefits,'' DeRosa testified.