Jamal Parris and Spencer LeGrande sat down with WSB TV’s Jodie Fleischer and broke it down, understanding that they might be in violation of the settlement gag order.
Clearly, they are going for the jugular and the rumored public apology which never happened is still a thorn in their sides.
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For the first time since they settled their case against Bishop Eddie Long, two of the young men who accused him of sexual abuse are speaking out.
Jamal Parris and Spencer LeGrande agreed to their first sit-down interview with Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer inside a Miami hotel late last week.
Parris and LeGrande and three other young men entered into a confidential settlement with Long and New Birth Missionary Baptist church three months ago.
By sitting down to talk with Fleischer, they risk losing that money, but said it’s worth it because it’s more important for everyone to know the truth.
“It’s just not enough anymore. I thought I could cover the pain up. I thought I could move, start over and everything will go away. I was terribly wrong,” Parris said.
Parris, 24, still bears the scars of abuse he says he suffered at the hands of Long. He is angry and emotional and wants Long to know what he’s done to him.
“Before I used to look at you like you were the man. You ran everything, but now I got a voice. Like you got a voice,” Parris said.
LeGrande wanted to follow his spiritual father’s path and become a preacher. His strong faith in God has given him a sense of calm now.
“I was fatherless, and to have a man love me just for who I was, I didn’t have to change myself, I just had to be me, I just had to love him back,” he said.
“The hardest part for me is watching somebody who you love destroy himself,” LeGrande said.
But the two men do share the most traumatic experience of their young lives. Both said Long manipulated their desperate need for a father into unwanted sexual contact that destroyed the boys they used to be.
“It’s the hopeful kid in you like, maybe daddy’s gonna be daddy today and maybe this thing done weighed enough on him that I can’t let my kids go out there like that. I’m not gonna let my kids take this,” Parris said.
Once the four lawsuits were filed last September, Parris says he watched on TV as Long addressed his congregation for the first time.
“I feel like David against Goliath, but I got five rocks and I haven’t thrown one yet,” Long said in his sermon that day.
“I couldn’t even stop crying cause I was angry. And the way he walked off and the way I saw the people stand up and applaud this man, how dare you?” Parris said.
They said all four of the young men who sued Long eventually sat across the table from him together during settlement talks.
Even behind closed doors, they said Long never admitted to any of the abuse, nor did he apologize. But he did settle the case, paying cash to the four young men who sued, plus another who joined in later. For a while they said they felt vindicated.
“Tell me you didn’t do it. The case has now been closed. For real? For what? I thought you got five stones?” Parris said.
“If you read the Bible again, mister, we are David. And we definitely did the right thing,” LeGrande said. Parris said he loves that he hates Long and hates that he loves him. That torment has led the two young men to start writing their story, every detail, chapter by chapter. They said the book will be as much for themselves as it is for others.
“Is there a lot out there that people still don’t know?” Fleischer asked.
“Absolutely,” said LeGrande. Parris added, “You ain’t ready for the secrets. I don’t care if this book sells one copy. But if it’s just for me, this is what my life looked like, this is my voice for the first time.”
They want to help others still going through it. And they said writing a book will help them express what they’ve been through, and help others recognize the warning signs.
“Ten years of details, each person, it’s gonna be a book full of ‘wow’s’ and ‘ahh’s’ and ‘Oh my God’s.’” LeGrande said.
Parris said he’s considered suicide. “I would love to pull a trigger. I would love to take pills and go to sleep, and not have to worry about anything. But I can’t, I have a kid on the way. So I have to fight every day to make sure I leave a better name for my son than I do for me.”
LeGrande also has a little boy and both men said they want to be better fathers than they had.
“We’re trying to help, not just spread the word about a person, we’re trying to break people loose about their fear of coming out and speaking,” LeGrande said. He said it’s not just teens who are around Long now, but adults who’ve kept his secrets for years.
“Once you have that much money to pay people and your money’s involved in their lifestyle, you have people that’s gonna support you no matter if you had a videotape showing it,” LeGrande said.
They said the four young men who sued Long are all heterosexual and never had intercourse with him. But the scars of what did happen linger. Both Parris and LeGrande said they understand they are risking their confidential settlement money by speaking about the case. Both said they did not care about that.
Fleischer was able to reach a representative for Long. He declined to comment about the proposed book, or what the young men had to say now.
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10 responses to “Two Eddie Long Accusers Break Silence, Risk Breaching Agreement”
I’on know Mo’. Seems like sour grapes to me. If you agree to take the money in exchange for silence and you took the money, you don’t have a “platform” to speak from. That’s the deal that you agreed to and now coming out to speak on it puts you in breach.
Now I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there. By all accounts it appears Eddie Long is the perv that he’s made out to be by this men. But being victimized at 16 is one thing and agreeing to a legal settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause at age 24 is another thing altogether. If you’re an adult and you sue somebody and settle the case and accept money and agree that you’ll stay silent… I don’t want to hear it! You made that deal. And if the confidentiality clause had any teeth, Long should sue THEM for breaking their silence.
Let’s get real, this is about pride. They took the money, but still feel like girls are gonna think they’re gay because of whatever happened with Long. Be honest fellas. But don’t try to take a platform and spill the beans after you took the man’s money and try to spin that into a sob story. If you wanted him publicly shamed then you should have refused to settle and took your chances at a “public” trial. Doing this now makes them look like a bunch of greedy and uncredible parasites.
Greedy…maybe. But their credibility only goes to the authenticity of their allegations. And by your own words “by all accounts it appears Eddie long is the perv that he’s made out to be by this men” their allegations still ring true to you and everyone else.
That is all I require of them. I don’t need any character witnesses, I don’t need them to make good life decisions. I would like them to, but it has no bearing on the allegations.
Think Rodney King. There was nothing admirable about him in his moment or the time since. It still does not change the reality of how we came to know about him or whether he was beaten senselessly, illegally by LAPD.
All I need to know is whether Eddie did it or not. This does nothing to diminish that reality in my eyes.
I’m sure these men will lead troubled lives until they receive the necessary counseling and guidance they’ve been searching for, ever since they first met Bishop Long. They were troubled then and they are troubled now. Troubled people make troubling decisions.
Nonetheless, Bishop Long is not any less culpable.
Oh I’m not saying Long isn’t guilty of what they accused him of. Frankly, I don’t really know. But the sheer number of men that came forward tends to suggest his guilt (kinda hard to have so many false allegations, IMO). All I’m saying is I think it’s tacky to agree to silence for money and then come on TV trying to accept the martyrdom robe. If Long did the acts he’s accused of doing when they were teens, they were victims “then.” But now after they chose their mode of relief (courts and lawsuits) and accepted their terms (confidentiality in exchange for money) they sold their “platform” to sell their story… even if they have good intentions.
I totally agree Esmond! This makes them their story look fabricated to me. It seems as they are just adding to the fire for more incentive. They have already done the damage to Bishop. If they would like to give back to the community by expressing their feelings or teaching people how to prevent this from happening to them, they can do that with out forcing their hands in the media. They can feed the community in so many other ways rather than using the media to do it. Good points Esmond!
These young men did not get what they really wanted, an apology and the acknowledgement from Long that what he did to them was wrong. If you have ever been sexually victimized by someone, you would know that getting money does not heal the emotional, spiritual, and psychological damage. Especially sexual victimization perpetrated by an alleged man of God! Recognition by Long of the suffering he caused would be a first step in their healing. However, Long seems incapable of having any empathy for his victims, and has truly demonstrated his predatory nature.
Esmond, the wounds of sexual abuse last a lifetime. Have some compassion for these young men, all of whom need therapy.
What just a minute Mo’Kelly!! These guys are no longer victims. They’re opportunists. This has gone on waaaaay too long and if they’re expecting some sort of apology from Pastor Long Stroke they should hire a new attorney. If they wanted to expose B.E.L in detail they should have written a book or memoir. They went to court, got the money they asked for, and now they still around?? It seems to me that they’re trying to stay relevant because of the media spotlight. What is alledged to have happened to them is horrible. But why not pick up the pieces of your shattered life and begin to heal with counseling or therapy. This story is old and these guys need to get a life or buy a new life. I hope the financial offer is recinded. They had they’re chance to talk so shut up!!
Ah, but here’s the thing Chi Town. Bishop Eddie Long wasn’t “forced” into mediation. If they are simply “opportunists” (which I don’t agree that they are), Long always had the option of going to court. If in fact they’re opportunists/liars (according to Chatty and Esmond) then of course the ONLY option Long had was to go to court to expose them.
He didn’t.
We’re back where we started. It’s hard to call someone an opportunist if some or all of what they have to say is true. If you call them liars, then that’s on Bishop Long. You don’t pay off liars and then ask for a non-disclosure agreement. Remember, LONG asked for the non-disclosure, not the young men.
It would have been much, much easier if Long either went to court or didn’t involve himself in these ways with the young men.
Those young men feel “had”. And with good cause. They are hurting and money cannot heal the hurt. They really need to go into some really good Christian counseling.
Shame on Eddie Long.
Chattygirl, Long is nobody’s bishop. Long damaged himself, by his reprehensible behavior, not his victim’s talking in public. Why would Long pay them big money if the accusations were fabricated? Media attention came because of Long’s high profile, again not the fault of the victims. I don’t understand how some of you think. What kind of “opportunity” are the victims seeking, if they are opportunists? Not all black folks are trying to “get over.” And like I said before, the damage from sexual abuse casts a long shadow over a person’s life. You don’t just cash a check and move on.
When I saw that Long took his show in the road and is “preaching” in South Africa, I almost threw up. I am a Christian and Long disgraces himself and the Body of christ.
…Body of “Christ”