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  Insurer Doesn't Have to Pay for Pastor Sex Charge Defense, Judge Rules

Associated Press, carried in WDAM
September 5, 2007

http://www.wdam.com/Global/story.asp?S=7028773&nav=menu123_2_12

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A federal judge has ruled that State Farm Insurance Company does not have to pay to defend the Reverend Jeffery Stallworth from a civil lawsuit filed by a Maryland woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2001 in her home.

Stallworth also was fined $800 yesterday (Tuesday) by U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate for being two hours late for a hearing.

State Farm had denied Stallworth the coverage under three policies to fight the woman's $10 million lawsuit and asked Wingate for a judgment in its favor.

The insurance company said Stallworth wasn't covered because of what it said was an "intentional act" that didn't fall under his duties as a minister, according to court documents.

Stallworth pleaded guilty in 2002 to a misdemeanor fourth-degree sex offense of touching. Under terms of the plea agreement, he was sentenced in a Maryland courtroom to two years' probation.

At Stallworth's request, a Maryland judge reviewed his criminal case in 2005 and agreed to remove his conviction and sentence if he completed one year of probation.

 
 

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