The 17-year-old girl who claimed Full Gospel Baptist Bishop E. Randy Fraser forced her to have sex with him for several months against her will took the witness stand on Monday as his trial began in a magistrate court, revealing explicit and salacious details of the acts she said occurred in his church office and his home.
The recent high school graduate, whose identity cannot be revealed because she is still a minor and also claims to be the victim of a sex crime, wept quietly as she prepared to testify, and appeared to be having difficulty at certain points during her testimony.
She was the prosecutionﾒs first witness.
At the beginning of her testimony, police prosecutor, Inspector Don Bannister, asked her to point out Bishop Fraser, which she did. He stands accused of having sexual intercourse with the girl (described as his dependent), then 16, between July 2005 and February 2006.
As Bishop Fraser looked on from a nearby chair, the girl told the court that she had attended Bishop Fraserﾒs Pilgrim Full Gospel Baptist Temple since she was born up until the time the allegations were made.
She testified that in June 2005, her mother put her out of the house claiming that she was unruly, and it was at that point that she went to live with her grandmother.
She said that soon after, during a meeting with her mother and grandmother, Bishop Fraser agreed to counsel her.
Asked to describe her first encounter with the bishop for counseling, the girl said he came to collect her from her grandmotherﾒs house and took her to his church office. She said the bishop asked her questions about her childhood up until the point when her mother put her out of the house.
“It was then he told me that he wanted me for five years and he didnﾒt want me to disappoint him,” the accuser testified in the presence of Magistrate Marilyn Meeres, court officers, members of the media, and two officials from the Crisis Centre.
Minutes earlier, the magistrate had ordered everyone else to leave the court.
According to the girl, the first counseling session lasted about an hour and a half. She said the following Saturday, Bishop Fraser collected her again around 6:30pm and drove her to the airport, where he allegedly said he wanted to check to see whether his late luggage had arrived following a trip he had taken to a Family Island.
She said she stayed in the car, and he came back about 10 to 15 minutes later. When he got back in the vehicle, the girl claimed that the bishop leaned over “and he kissed me on my lips.”
Asked by the prosecutor how she responded, she said, “I did nothing,” and said she felt “shocked and scared.”
Following the kiss, she claimed Bishop Fraser drove her back to the church. For about an hour, she said, she followed his instructions and waited in his office while he held a meeting with a group of men who attended the church.
Following the meeting, she said the bishop returned and they conversed for about five minutes before he asked her to come behind his desk and give him a hug, which she told the court she did.
“Did anything happen as a result?” Inspector Bannister asked.
The girl told the court that the bishop started to caress her back and fondle her before unbuttoning her pants and performing oral sex on her. It was at that point that the prosecutor pressed her for more details, which she provided.
“He told me he wasnﾒt going to hurt me and he didnﾒt want to have sex with me,” she claimed.
Again, the accuser told the court, “I was scared, crying and shocked.”
She said she received no counseling and the bishop soon took her to a Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant before dropping her home shortly after 9pm.
Asked about further sexual encounters with the bishop, she claimed they had sex at least 15 times and told the court the first time they had intercourse was in his office, and the bishop told her he did not want her to disappoint him by getting pregnant, so he used a condom.
Pressed further by the prosecutor, she gave details of the acts she claimed he performed on her, and she said she went into Bible study after the first intercourse session then went home on the church bus.
Asked where the majority of the sexual encounters took place, the girl responded, “The majority of them took place at the church in his office, or at his house.” She said the encounters took place at his house about five times.
“Do you know the bishop is married?” asked the prosecutor.
“Yes, sir,” the girl responded.
He also asked her if she knew the bishopﾒs wife, and she responded, “Yes, sir.”
Asked where the wife was during the alleged sexual encounters at the bishopﾒs house, the girl said, “She was either at church, to a function or off the island.”
She was also questioned about alleged sexual encounters in 2006, claiming that once when the bishop took her to his house he used a sex toy on her against her will.
“I told him no,” the bishopﾒs accuser claimed.
After that, she said, Bishop Fraser dropped her off at her best friendﾒs house.
She also told the court that her last sexual encounter with the bishop took place at his church office around the third week of February.
Prior to having any sexual relations with Bishop Fraser, the girl told the court that once on the phone he started asking her what he was to her.
“I said pastor,” she claimed, further telling the court that the bishop did not find the answer acceptable and pressed her more.
“I told him he was my father,” she said, but claimed that it still wasnﾒt acceptable to the bishop, so he told her that he could be her lover, sweetheart, or boyfriend.
The girl claimed again that the bishop told her he needed her for five years and he would show her how a real man treats a woman.
“He told me whenever he saw me in church he would be turned on,” she claimed.
“He asked me what I look for in a guy and what I expect in a relationship.”
Asked why she allowed her relationship with the bishop to continue, she claimed that the bishop “threatened” her and told her no one would believe her if she talked, and she would look like a fool.
“He said he wasnﾒt going to let me destroy everything he worked so hard for,” the girl claimed.
She also told the court that she eventually told her best friend about her relationship with the bishop, and later a female evangelist at the church, who is also the youth director, who encouraged her to get out of the relationship, which she claimed she tried to do.
“He told me if he were to leave me, nobody would take care of me the way he was and I would regret it,” the girl told the court.
She also said the bishop gave her money for lunch every week and gave her more during special occasions, like on her birthday when she claimed he gave her $100.
Asked by the prosecutor whether the bishop gave her gifts, the girl said he gave her gifts including three pairs of gold earrings, a gold chain with a cross, a shirt, two watches and two bottles of perfume.
Her testimony continued to the point where she said her family eventually found out, and she said the bishop was angry at her for not erasing explicit text and voice messages he left on her phone.
But the magistrate would not allow alleged text messages to be submitted as evidence.
“I canﾒt allow text messages because anybody could send a text message and say theyﾒre somebody else,” said the magistrate, adding that her granddaughter sometimes uses her cell phone to text people.
Magistrate Meeres allowed the accuser only to repeat one of the purported voice messages, which contained obscene language, and explicit sexual references.
“Do I have to say the exact thing?” the girl asked, appearing apprehensive about repeating one of the messages the bishop allegedly left her.
The prosecutor told her she had to and she did so.
The girl also claimed that every time she had sex with the bishop she would develop burning, itching and swelling.
She claimed that the bishop did not want her to go to a doctor so he bought her Monistat ﾖ used to treat yeast infections ﾖ over-the-counter.
The girl also claimed that the bishop used a condom every time they had sex, except on one occasion.
After more than an hour of the girlﾒs testimony, the prosecutor indicated that he was not done questioning her, and also planned to present certain exhibits to the court.
Magistrate Meeres soon adjourned the matter to October 17, ordering the prosecutionﾒs six other female witnesses, Bishop Fraser, and the girl who made the accusations against him to return to court on that date.
Minutes later, Bishop Fraser was rushed out of court to a waiting van and quickly dashed in amid jeers from an angry crowd that had gathered from earlier in the morning.
The bishop, who is being represented by attorney Philip “Brave” Davis, remains on a $10,000 bail.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
