Saying that what Full Gospel Baptist Bishop E. Randy Fraser did was wrong, the 17-year-old girl who claimed he had forced her to have sex with him for several months told the court on Tuesday she wishes to see justice prevail and he should be punished.
“If he is not he would continue to do the same thing to other young individuals,” said the girl when Bishop Fraserﾒs trial resumed before Magistrate Marilyn Meeres three months after it had been adjourned.
The girl also told the court that sheﾒs “ashamed and embarrassed” to go out in public because people persecute her.
She said she now has to get counseling to prevent her from committing suicide and to heal the wounds that the bishop should have been healing.
“He intimidated me and manipulated me which is why I did everything that he asked of me,” the witness said.
She also told the court, “My family and I loved Pastor Fraser. I respected him and looked up to him.”
Bishop Fraser stands accused of having sexual intercourse with the girl (described as his dependent), then 16, between July 2005 and February 2006.
On Tuesday, the accuser told the court she never wanted her relationship with the bishop to happen.
While being questioned by police prosecutor Inspector Don Bannister, she said the bishop had several marks about his body, including on his shoulder and in private areas.
At this point, Mr. Bannister asked the magistrate to approve an application for the accused to be examined by a medical practitioner to determine whether the marks exist.
Attorney Wayne Munroe, who is the new counsel for Bishop Fraser, said the prosecution was attempting to introduce evidence that had not been previously disclosed.
Mr. Munroe said that there was no reference to any such marks in any of the statements the girl gave the police.
“What this means is the prosecutor has not given full disclosure,” Mr. Munroe said.
Asked why she did not mention anything to police about the marks purportedly on the bishopﾒs body, the girl said the officer who interviewed her never asked her about that and at the time she said she did not think the information was important.
The prosecutor said the information about the marks had later been voluntarily submitted by the girl.
Magistrate Meeres did not appear open to the request for Bishop Fraser to be examined and questioned under what authority she could order him to be examined, which she said would be an invasion of his privacy.
Earlier, the girl identified certain items she said she had received from Bishop Fraser during the course of their relationship.
These included a silver watch, a pink plastic watch, a gold chain with a cross, perfume, a red t-shirt, an earrings packet (she said she had lost the actual earrings), and church envelopes in which she claimed Bishop Fraser had given her money and phone cards.
The witness told the court the bishop had given her the perfume and gold chain for Valentineﾒs Day this year, and she said he had told her he was giving her the silver watch to prove he loved her.
She also identified two tubes of cream used for the treatment of yeast infections, which she also claimed she had received from the bishop.
During testimony on July 17, the girl had told the court that sometimes after sex with the bishop, she would become irritated in her genital area.
Under cross examination by Mr. Munroe, the teenager explained that her mother had put her out of the house after hearing rumors that she had been skipping school to see a boy.
Mr. Munroe said the details of the witnessﾒs testimony kept changing, but she said this was not so.
“I suggest to you that you change your story when you realize things that arenﾒt making sense,” he said to her at one point.
He also asked the witness how she felt about her mother for putting her out of the house, and he suggested that her response to a question from the prosecutor about how she felt about the ordeal involving the bishop was a “recitation”.
“You donﾒt have that as down pat as your last recitation,” said Mr. Munroe, after the witness responded to his question about her mother.
The girl said, “I feel that part of this is her fault and if she hadnﾒt put me out none of this would have happened.”
In July, 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.
In her July testimony, she also revealed explicit and salacious details of sexual encounters she said she had with Bishop Fraser. There were further details given on Tuesday when the magistrate sought clarification on a sexual act the girl had claimed the bishop performed on her.
Mr. Munroe asked the witness on Tuesday whether she would normally use the words “ordeal” and “secreted” as she did during testimony, and the girl said she would not normally use those words, although she said she understood what they meant.
In all, her testimony on Tuesday lasted about three hours with a break in between.
Before she left the court in the afternoon, Mr. Munroe during his cross examination, suggested to the girl that she had told lies on Bishop Fraser and on the police officers who took her statement.
“I suggest to you that all this man (the bishop) ever tried to do to you was help you,” Mr. Munroe said.
He also said the lies the witness claim people were telling her mother about her had to do with a claim that she was seeing a 25-year-old man and was skipping school to spend the day with him.
She denied that this was true. But the witness did claim that Bishop Fraser had Mondays off and would encourage her to cut classes to spend the day with him.
But she also said he had encouraged her to stay in school and go to school every day.
Mr. Munroe also submitted that the girl would blame anyone, but herself for problems she was experiencing, and he suggested that she was now seeking to blame Bishop Fraser.
Additionally, the witness confirmed that she had accused several adult males of making sexual advances at her, including her high school math teacher.
Asked by Magistrate Meeres why she kept going to the bishopﾒs office if she claimed he was forcing her to have sex, the girl said she continued going because she felt obligated.
In the afternoon, the girlﾒs grandmother took the witness stand. Magistrate Meeres adjourned the matter to February 7.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
