Hat Tip: National Enquirer
The ultimate fall from grace, a Federal grand jury is about to indict John Edwards, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.
In another shocker, close sources say Edwards’ estranged wife Elizabeth could help send the former presidential candidate to jail!
Edwards, the disgraced two-time Presidential loser, is being investigated by the feds, including the FBI and IRS, for possible campaign violations related to paying his mistress Rielle Hunter.
R & B crooner Usher Raymond finally gave up the ghost and terminated his train wreck of a marriage to celebrity stylist and desperate cougar, Tameka Foster. And with that the brotha finally escapes from the tentacles of Tameka’s baby trap. If I could ask the brotha one question, it would be “what took you so long, bruh? I know that brotha Usher has a weakness for older sistah’s, but be that as it may, why in the hell would he put down a sistah like Chili to take up with woman of the same age who couldn’t even hold a candle to her. His Mama didn’t even like Tameka, which shoulda been a clue for a confirmed Mama’s boy not to marry her arse. On the real, Usher didn’t hafta call Dionne Warwick to find out if the sh*t would last. Anybody who really knew him and loved him woulda told him to keep on steppin. IMHO, Usher shoulda married Chili.
Her Royal Highness, Star Jones, Empress of Phony, has filed for divorce from Al Reynolds after a three and half year sham marriage. I can’t say that I am surprised by this development. Fired from The View, cancelled by True TV, and panned by critics worldwide, the Empress of Phony’s life seems to be falling apart. But to borrow a phrase from Moms Mabley: I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead. Star’s marriage and career are dead. Good.
Hat Tip: Errin Haines, Associated Press
ATLANTA – (AP) The husband of televangelist Juanita Bynum denies that he treated her cruelly and says they have not been continuously separated since June, as her divorce petition alleges.
Attorneys for Thomas W. Weeks III were expected to file his counterclaim for divorce later Wednesday. The four-page document goes beyond simply answering Bynum’s petition and makes a case for Weeks.
“Now they have each asked for a divorce,” said Randy Kessler, one of Weeks’ attorneys.
In the response, Weeks admits to most of the allegations in Bynum’s complaint, but denies her assertion that the two have been separated since June. Weeks said they spent one night together in August that boosted his hopes for reconciliation.
The next day, Aug. 22, Bynum claims her husband beat her. According to a police report, she told officers Weeks “choked her, pushed her down, kicked and stomped her … until a bellman pulled him off of her.”
Weeks faces charges of aggravated assault and making terroristic threats. He is free on $40,000 bond and is not allowed to have contact with Bynum.
Bynum’s divorce petitions cited “cruel treatment” and said the marriage is “irretrievably broken.”
Weeks told reporters their estrangement began June 3 when Bynum announced to the church that she was “planning to leave our church never to return.”
The couple wed in a million-dollar, televised ceremony in July 2002, and their marriage played a prominent role in their ministries. The couple co-wrote “Teach Me How to Love: The Beginnings.”
Weeks’ response to his wife’s divorce filing asks that the court equitably divide the couple’s debts and assets.
Bynum, 48, is head of a ministry that also includes a gospel record label and seminar tours. She has sold thousands of motivational books, CDs and DVDs related to empowerment and relationships.
Weeks, 40, is known to his followers as Bishop Weeks and is head of Global Destiny Ministries, based in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth.
Hat Tip: D. Aileen Dodd, Atlanta Journal Constitution
National evangelist Juanita Bynum has filed for divorce in Gwinnett County and has been granted a restraining order as the proceedings move forward.
The petition for divorce and the mutual restraining order was received by the Gwinnett County Superior Court Thursday afternoon.
Bynum, who separated from her estranged husband Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III in June, is seeking a divorce based on the argument that her marriage has been “irretrievably broken,” and that she is a victim of “cruel treatment.”
Bynum, 48, told police in August that Weeks beat, choked and stomped her to the ground in the parking lot of an Atlanta hotel. Weeks, also a pastor, has denied the alleged abuse.
He was charged with felony aggravated assault, felony terroristic threats and two counts of simple battery in connection with the alleged attack.
The wealthy evangelist is also asking the court for possible financial support “that the court may deem equitable or appropriate.”
The divorce petition in Gwinnett mirrors a petition Bynum had filed earlier this month in Ware County. That petition was dismissed because it was filed in the wrong jurisdiction. Lawyers for Weeks, 40, said the case had to move north to Gwinnett because that’s where Weeks resides. The couple have a $2.5 million home at a Duluth country club.
Attorneys for Weeks said Friday they will respond to the divorce petition, but said they question Bynum’s motives for her recent media appearances. In recent weeks Bynum has appeared on the front page of The New York Times and has been a guest on Christian radio and Good Morning America.
Bynum, who has declared herself the “face of domestic violence,” has said she plans to launch a ministry to help women who suffer partner abuse.
“She thinks she is going to get some benefit by going public with this,” said Randy Kessler, Weeks’ attorney. “It is not necessary for divorce purposes. We are going to take the high road.”
Bynum’s attorney Karla Walker also sought a restraining order in the divorce petition.
The protection order prohibits both Bynum and Weeks from “any act that injures, maltreats … intimidates or harasses” each other. It also prevents the couple from retaliating against each other by disconnecting the utilities or canceling insurance policies.
Bynum, who uses the married name Bynum-Weeks, is asking the court that her last name be restored to Bynum, which she uses for professional purposes on occasion.
Bynum and Weeks married in an elaborate ceremony in 2002. They moved to metro Atlanta in 2006 to start Global Destiny Church in Duluth.
I thought the Negro was broke and had been evicted from his place. How can you get support from a brotha with no endz.
Just When I thought this was pretty much played out, another wrinkle develops in the melodrama that is the Weeks-Bynum divorce.
Turns out that Bishop held a press conference today in which he denies beating her. Amazing. From what I can tell, he told a boldfaced lie. This press conference is a naked PR ploy to cloud the issue of domestic violence and play on the sympathies of the weak minded. You be the judge and read for yourself.
Hat Tip: by John Shriek, 11Alive News
“She said,” last week.
“He said” on Friday afternoon.
Ten days after Evangelist Juanita Bynum proclaimed herself “the face of domestic violence,” her estranged husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks, told reporters he wanted to speak out to try to set straight “the many discrepencies, dramatizations and untruths.” Weeks denied violence toward Bynum, and insisted he walked away from a confrontation with her on August 21, the night he’s accused of assaulting her.
“I have always loved my wife and have been nothing but faithful to her,” Weeks said in a statement he read to reporters at his church, Global Destiny Ministries, in Duluth. “I want to be clear in saying I do not condone in any way, shape or form, violence of any kind towards women. My role has always been to operate as a protector and not as an aggressor. I have walked away from many situations between the two of us, just like I walked away that night.”
Weeks did not answer questions from reporters, on the advice of his attorneys, and did not comment further on the criminal assault charges against him.Atlanta police say a hotel bellhop saw Weeks kicking, beating and choking Bynum in the parking lot of the hotel that night, and that the bellhop heard Weeks threatening to kill Bynum as the bellhop pulled Weeks off of Bynum.
“I want to share my heart with the people,” Weeks said Friday, “to inform all that will listen that there are two sides to every story.”
He asked people to keep an open mind while he fights the criminal charges against him.
“I am asking that everyone that has already judged me to take the time to consider other perspectives. I understand that my silence to date has given me the perception of guilt,” but he said he does not believe in speaking publicly about what he considers to be private matters between him and his estranged wife.
Weeks said their current troubles began on June 3, when, he said, Bynum suddenly announced to their congregation that she was quitting the church, the church that she and Weeks had founded together, never to return. “It was the first time I knew she felt this way about our church family,” Weeks said. Bynum has always maintained her own, separate ministry that she founded and led prior to their marriage in 2002.
“The shock to the congregation was the start of many rumors,” Weeks said of Bynums’ surprise announcement.
Two days later, he said, her office sent a fax to his staff, “cancelling a major, international event and noted the reason was due to our marital separation. I was then informed by my staff about the fax. It was the first time that I was made aware of our separation.”
Thenn on June 14th, Weeks said, Bynum’s attorney mailed him a “cease and desist” letter ordering him to stop using Bynum’s name, face image, sound or likeness in anything related to the church.
“We were not legally allowed to mention her name even in prayer,” Weeks said. “Many people were offended by my removal of her image, as it appeared that it was of my own doing…. I did not share her letter from her lawyers to the church family in an effort to cover and protect her from negativity and perceptions, as I have done countless times over the past five years.”
Weeks said he still hoped he and Bynum could work out a reconciliation, and on August 16 he said she showed up at his office saying she, too, wanted to reconcile. “It was that day that I first began to believe that our marriage was moving in a positive direction. It was my understanding that the relationship was salvageable,” Weeks said.
On August 20, he said, “I was with my wife the entire night… and felt that our love for each other was going to get us through these hard times.”
Weeks emphasized that, contrary to earlier statements and reports, the reason he met with his wife on August 21 was not that he was seeking a reconciliation. He thought that their previous night together meant that they were already reconciling.
On August 21, he said, she called him asking to meet with him at a hotel, saying to him that, as he described it Friday, “Juanita Bynum Ministries was in need of our church facility and members’ support in order to raise monies” for one of Bynum’s projects. “She shared her urgency that we meet that night,” Weeks said.
Weeks did not describe, in his statement Friday, his August 21 meeting with Bynum, what led to their confrontation or anything else about it, and he did not discuss the indictment against him. He has pleaded Not Guilty.
“I would like for Juanita to know that I respect but regret her decision for a divorce. My church family is fully aware that I have always supported her in every endeavor. I have never hindered her from pursuiing her ministry vision or personal goals in life…. I want her to know that I am praying God’s best for her.”
Weeks’ divorce attorney, Randy Kessler, told reporters after Weeks read his statement that “he can’t stop the divorce from happening.” Kessler said Weeks just wants it to be settled as soon as possible, in private.
“The Bishop is not interested in money, this is not a case about money,” Kessler said. “We’d like all offers to remain private” as the two negotiate a financial settlement.
“Everybody, all of us, have blemishes, have flaws, that we do not want exposed” in a public courtroom, Kessler said, and Weeks is hoping to settle both the divorce and the criminal charges against him out of court.
There was no pre-nuptual agreement, Kessler said.
“The truth will eventually be known by all,” Weeks said. “In the end, God will always get the glory.”
Hat Tip: Errin Haynes, Associated Press, Atlanta Journal Constitution
The Rev. Thomas W. Weeks III had held out hope that he and Bynum could reconcile even after she filed a petition for divorce Monday, but now “has come to the personal resolve, that if Juanita is insistent on a divorce, he will not stand in the way,” his attorneys said in a statement.
Bynum’s attorney Karla Walker said she is withdrawing a divorce petition filed in south Georgia’s Ware County, where Bynum has a home, and refiling the case in Gwinnett County, where Weeks lives.
Bynum, known for her message of female empowerment, claims Weeks choked, pushed and stomped on her in a hotel parking lot after an Aug. 21 meeting in which the couple failed to reconcile.
Weeks faces charges of aggravated assault and making terroristic threats. He is free on $40,000 bond and is not allowed to have contact with Bynum.
Bynum, 48, is head of a dynamic ministry that also includes a gospel record label and seminar tours. She has sold thousands of motivational books, CDs and DVDs related to empowerment and marriage.
She has now emerged as a self-appointed “face of domestic violence” and has said she wants to be seen as a survivor, not a victim, of abuse.
Weeks, 40, is known to his followers as Bishop Weeks and is head of Global Destiny Ministries, based in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth. He co-wrote “Teach Me How to Love: The Beginnings” with Bynum, and the two wed in a million-dollar, televised ceremony in 2002. They have been estranged since June.
The developments of the past few weeks may have put things in perspective for Weeks regarding the relationship, his attorney Randy Kessler said Thursday, who added that his client will speak out Friday.
“He put the word out there, said he was open for reconciliation,” Kessler said. “I guess he got no positive response. At this point he’s not going to fight whether or not there’s going to be a divorce.”
It ain’t like he had grounds to contest the divorce, noway.
Prophetess Bynum talked all around it and never answered the direct question posed by Tom Joyner, on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the gist of her answer. The only thing that mollified me was the clarity of her opinion that a woman is NEVER to stay in a physically abusive relationship. She was honest and said that she filed for divorce in 2005 and pulled back because of who she was, I will give her that. I hope that in her new ministry, after the divorce is over, that she can really come clean and lay it all out so that people can understand how this happens and how to keep it from happening. ESSENCE magazine will be doing a December cover on the Prophetess, and she said that she will be at liberty to say more then. I commend Tom for this interview and for asking the questions that needed to be asked. Also discussed was her support for Barack Obama and that she has been asked to be a surrogate for the candidate and will do some traveling on his behalf.
Hat Tip: Black America’s Web, Associated Press
Randy Kessler, one of the attorneys representing Thomas W. Weeks III, said they are considering whether the counterclaim will accuse Juanita Bynum of cruel treatment, the charge her divorce petition levels at Weeks.
“Cruel treatment is a very vague legal term,” Kessler said. “There’s a possibility that there’s cruel treatment on both sides, but we’re not committed to that position.”
Kessler and Louis Tesser, who is also representing Weeks, are family law attorneys with the Atlanta-based firm Kessler, Schwarz and Solomiany, who have litigated high-profile cases against boxer Evander Holyfield, former Atlanta Falcon Andre Rison, Terrell Owens of the Dallas Cowboys and attorney Willie Gary.
The divorce petition was filed Monday in Ware County, where Bynum has a home, less than three weeks after Bynum accused Weeks of choking, pushing and stomping her in a hotel parking lot in an incident that began the night of Aug. 21 and continued into the next morning. Weeks, known to his followers as Bishop Weeks, was charged with aggravated assault and making terroristic threats and is not allowed to have contact with Bynum.
Hat Tip: D. Aileen Dodd, Atlanta Journal Constitution
The divorce filing states that the marriage has been “irretrievably broken,” said Bynum’s attorney Karla Walker of Valdosta, Ga.
by her husband Thomas W. Weeks III on Aug. 21 in a hotel parking lot near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
“She loved her husband,” Walker said. “But she does feel it is necessary to stop the domestic violence and go on with the divorce.”
The divorce paperwork was sent to the Ware County Courthouse early last week, but an error delayed the filing. The legal documents were officially filed on Monday.
Bynum, 48, spent the weekend in California where she attended a fund-raiser for presidential candidate Barack Obama. The party was held at Oprah Winfrey’s estate.
Bynum has said she is moving forward with plans to start a domestic violence ministry. Last week, she resurfaced in the spotlight, saying she had recovered from the alleged attack and would like to serve as an advocate against domestic violence.
Weeks, 40, was charged with felony aggravated assault, felony terroristic threats and two counts of simple battery in connection with the attack. He could face up to 27 years in jail if convicted.
Hat Tip: D. Aileen Dodd, Atlanta Journal Constitution
In a statement released by attorney Louis Tesser of Kessler, Schwarz and Solomiany, Weeks says he still hasn’t received notice that a divorce filing has been made by his wife national evangelist Juanita Bynum.
“The Bishop Thomas W. Weeks has hoped and still hopes that the marriage can be reconciled,” Tesser said. “If that is possible he is committed to working things out amicably and will only litigate as a very last resort.”
Word of the pending divorce spread after Bynum spoke of it on a news broadcast. A relative also confirmed the divorce filing Thursday.
Tesser said if Bynum has a divorce attorney he is ready to meet with the lawyer and discuss the matter privately.
Amy Malone, Bynum’s publicist, said she had no comment on the issue.
Bynum has resurfaced in the public spotlight calling herself “the new face of domestic violence,” referring to the alleged beating by her husband. The minister told police Weeks beat, choked and stomped her in a hotel parking lot on Aug. 21.
Weeks, 40, was charged with felony aggravated assault, felony terroristic threats and two counts of simple battery in connection to the incident. His appearance in Fulton County Superior Court originally set for today has been postponed indefinitely.
The case has been reassigned to a different judge. Weeks could face up to 27 years in jail if convicted.
Is this Negro for real? Doesn’t he know that he’s going to jail?
Hat Tip: by D. Aileen Dodd, S.A. Reid, Atlanta Journal Constitution
A relative on Thursday said that Bynum has filed for divorce but court records were not available early Thursday. Bynum’s publicist, Amy Malone, would not comment.
the alleged beating by Weeks, the pastor and co-founder of Global Destiny Ministries in metro Atlanta.
Bynum called a press conference on Tuesday, a few hours before she hosted an international Christian talk show on Trinity Broadcasting Network. She appeared poised and soft-spoken before news cameras. She wore her wedding ring on her right hand. The pastor has been separated from her husband for more than three months.
Calling herself “the new face of domestic violence,” Bynum is expected to be part of an A-list crowd Saturday at a fund-raiser for Barack Obama’s presidential bid.
The party is being hosted by media magnate Oprah Winfrey at her 42-acre estate in California.
Bynum is part of a guest list that includes celebrities, politicians and other news makers.
“She received an invitation to attend the event at Oprah’s home,” said Malone. Bynum is hoping to talk directly with Obama or members of his presidential campaign team about national domestic violence concerns.
Weeks’ lawyer, Louis Tesser, has said that Weeks “hopes he doesn’t wind up getting a divorce.” On Wednesday, Weeks broke his silence for the first time since the alleged Aug. 21 domestic violence incident by issuing a written statement through his lawyers.
In it, Weeks cautioned against a rush to judgment and said he would share his version of what happened that night at the appropriate time.
Bynum was allegedly beaten, choked, and stomped to the ground in an attack. Weeks was charged with felony aggravated assault, felony terroristic threats and two counts of simple battery in connection to the incident.
Weeks’ appearance in Fulton County Superior Court originally set for Friday has been postponed indefinitely. The case has been reassigned to a different judge. He could face up to 27 years in jail if convicted.
Skeptical Brotha 