Jessica Hahn: I am not a bimbo

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 6

Jessica Hahn: I am not a bimbo

NZPA-AP Charlotte Jessica Hahn in a “Playboy” interview says she was told “you’re going to do something tremendous for God” before Jim Bakker and another evangelist forced themselves on her sexually and “ruined my life.”

“I am not a bimbo ... I am a human being. I was done in. I was hurt,” she said in the interview, which is accompanied by topless photos of her. The former church secretary’s encounter with Mr Bakker led to the PTL evangelist’s downfall.

A copy of "Playboy’s” November issue became available yesterday as Ms Hahn ended two days of testimony before a grand jury investigating alleged financial misconduct at the SUSI 72 million ($266.6 million) evangelical empire, including hush money paid to her. Ms Hahn, aged 28, said in the interview that Mr Bakker and an evangelist, John Wesley Fletcher, forced her into having sex with them separately in a Florida hotel room in 1980 and then slyly boasted about it on television later in the day. “Jim, God really ministered to us today, .didnt /

he?” she quoted Mr Fletcher as telling Mr Bakker during a televised fund-raiser. “Yeah, he really did,” Mr Bakker was said to have replied. Ms Hahn’s lawyer, Dominic Barbara, declined yesterday to say how much she was paid for the “Playboy” interview, but when asked whether it was as much as SUSI million, ($1.55 million) he replied, “I’m not going to deny a million.”

The West Babylon, New York, woman said that Mr Bakker and Mr Fletcher encountered her in her room, and that Mr Bakker said he was unhappy sexually with his wife, Tammy. John Fletcher said, “Jessica, you’re going to be doing something tremendous for God,” according to Ms. Hahn, who told "Playboy” that she was a virgin and had gone on two dates before meeting Mr Bakker. Ms Hahn said that after Mr Bakker forced her into having sex, Mr Fletcher returned and told her, "you just saved PTL.” Then he tore her clothes off and had sex with her, she said. “Jim

Bakker is not going to have you. You are mine,” she quoted him as saying. Ms Hahn said she had agreed to accept $U5265,000 ($410,750 to keep quiet but broke her silence when Mr Bakker disclosed the encounter in resigning from PTL in March. Mr Barbara said Ms Hahn received $U520,300 ($31,465) before PTL stopped the payments. “Two men had me in one day. I hated every second of it and it has ruined my life,” she said. “And I took hush money, all right — money to hush them up.” Mr, Bakker has acknow-

ledged having sex with her but claims she was the seducer. Referring to Ms Hahn’s decision to pose semi-nude while testifying that she was victimised, Mr Bakker’s lawyer, Melvin Belli, said yesterday, “I think that for a poor, naive young girl, she’s learned the ways of the world very fast.

“The poor girl is trying to get another million dollars,” Mr Belli said.

Mr Fletcher has acknowledged introducing Mr Bakker to Ms Hahn, but has not commented on her allegations that he also had sex with her.

A man answering the telephone at the John Wesley Fletcher Evangelistic Association in Oklahoma City said Mr Fletcher would make a statement after testifying before the Federal grand jury. . Ms Hahn also told “Playboy” that the Rev. Jerry Falwell used her to gain control of PTL, which was placed in his hands by Mr Bakker after his downfall. “You know I’m no fan of Jim Bakker, but Jim Bakker has also been screwed,” Ms Hahn said. “I believe Jerry Falwell 'M-

just outright screwed him.”

At a news conference, Mr Falwell, who is struggling to keep control of PTL against Mr Bakker, said Ms Hahn’s involvement with “Playboy” “brings her down unfortunately to the level where Mr Bakker is.”

Ms Hahn said she posed because she “fought a long time to feel like a woman and feel good about myself. And I don’t see these pictures as being filthy. I see what they did as being filthy.”

Mr Barbara said Ms Hahn’s two days of grand jury testimony under a limited grant of immunity from prosecution focused on possible tax violations by PTL in connection with the hush money. The grand jury also heard from Paul Roper, a California businessman who confronted PTL in 1985 with Ms Hahn’s complaints about the 1980 encounter.

Mr Roper, who has told the "Charlotte Observer” newspaper that he negotiated payments for Ms Hahn over lunch with Mr Bakker’s former top deputy at PTL, declined to discuss details of his testimony.