Columbus jury awards $500K to woman in lawsuit alleging preacher’s longtime sexual abuse
After just 90 minutes of deliberation in a three-day trial, a Columbus jury awarded half a million dollars to a woman who sued her former pastor for years of alleged sexual abuse that began when she was 15 years old.
Jurors reached their decision Wednesday afternoon in the suit Lequita Jackson filed four years ago against Lewis Clemons, accusing him of pushing her into a sexual relationship that lasted from 2002 to about 2009, as Lewis led churches known as Faith Unlimited Ministries and Kingdom Awareness Ministries.
Though the Ledger-Enquirer by policy does not identify those alleged to be victims of sexual assault, Jackson chose to have her name disclosed to show that victims should not be ashamed to come forward.
“We’re not the ones who should be hiding in the shadows,” she said Thursday. “The predators are the ones who should be hiding in the shadows.”
Her attorney, Jeb Butler, said she paid a price for publicly accusing Clemons.
“She lost friends over telling the truth about what he did to her,” Butler said. “It’s a very unpleasant thing to come forward.... She put herself through all this for some very good reasons.”
She revealed the relationship after learning Clemons had pressured other women into similar affairs, because she wanted to put a stop to that, Butler said: “Lequita’s goal from the very beginning was to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
He said Jackson was among four women who testified against Clemons, who was not represented by an attorney in the civil trial before Muscogee Superior Court Judge Ron Mullins.
Jackson alleged Clemons made advances after she went to him to complain about inappropriate sexual contact with a church music director. From age 15 until she turned 23, she and Clemons had sex multiple times in various locations, including motel rooms, cars, the church office, the pulpit and a bedroom belonging to Clemons’ daughter, Butler said.
Jackson and other women testified Clemons perpetuated a practice he called “body anointing,” in which he would have them strip to their underwear or completely nude and rub oil on them as he preached or recited scripture.
“He would tell them it would ‘seal in the holy spirit,’” Butler said. Clemons at one point claimed it cured a woman’s breast cancer, he added.
When Jackson tried to end the relationship, Clemons “re-initiated it using coercion, persuasion, and by falsely claiming the Bible justified his actions,” said the lawsuit filed June 16, 2017.
Butler said Jackson wanted Clemons only to admit what he had done, and would not have taken the case to trial if he had.
She also wanted him to lead no more churches, her lawsuit alleging that “Clemons’ long-term pattern of abuse, spanning many years and many victims, shows that as long as he is able to remain a pastor or church leader, he will sexually abuse those who accept him as a religious leader.”
‘I did lose a lot’
Jackson said Thursday that she was “thrilled” when she heard the jury’s verdict. “I really just felt hopeful about putting this behind me,” she said.
She’s 34 now, and believes what she endured after suing Clemons was worth the sacrifice.
“I did lose a lot,” she said. When she left the church, “I lost a family that I had for years.” She lost other friends, too, she said: “It helped me sort through who my friends were.”
But she gained new allies who came forward to support her, she said: “I got so much support from people I’d never met before.”
She hopes others will learn from her experience: “I really hope people will learn that this is something that’s common,” she said of sexual abuse.
Those in positions of authority who prey on others should take a lesson from this, too, she said: “They need to be aware that accountability is not something that’s beyond them.”
Clemons could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Butler said he does not know what Clemons is doing now. “He’s just sort of bouncing around,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s still preaching or not.”
The attorney doesn’t think his client will ever get the money the jury awarded her.
“I don’t think Lewis Clemons has half a million dollars,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll collect a dime.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 3:14 PM.