MOBILE (AL)
WALA-TV, Fox 10 [Mobile AL]
February 24, 2025
By Ariel Mallory
It was an emotional testimony from both alleged victims on Monday as they claimed they trusted Vail as their pastor.
The trial for a Mobile-area pastor accused of rape is underway.
Some of the details are disturbing…
Bradrick Vail faces three counts of 1st-degree rape, three counts of sexual abuse, and one count of 1st-degree sodomy.
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He was arrested last May after a Mobile County grand jury secretly indicted him.
Mobile Police called this an “extensive sexual assault investigation” with victims in both Mobile and Prichard.
Investigators say Vail met his alleged victims through his church.
Vail is the pastor of Tree of Life Deliverance Ministry on Stanton Road.
It was an emotional testimony from both alleged victims on Monday as they claimed they trusted him as their pastor.
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On Monday, opening statements were heard from the District Attorney’s office and Vail’s attorney.
According to the first alleged victim, she says she was introduced to Vail by a family member and started attending his church in 2022.
She claimed their first encounter was at the same family member’s house, where Vail wanted to “pray for her.”
The alleged victim says Vail told her to get undressed, kneel on top of a bible, and put a sheet over her and raped her.
According to Vail’s attorney, the alleged victim says she never called 911, went to a hospital, or pursued a rape kit and that she continued to attend his church.
The woman claimed she was afraid to say no and thought Vail might harm her.
The next alleged victim says she met Vail in 2023.
The woman says she offered to help Vail paint the church and that Vail offered to pray for her because she was having shoulder pain.
During the interaction, the woman says she was assaulted in a similar fashion as the other alleged victim.
Vail’s attorney also pointed out this second woman never called 911, went to a hospital, or pursued a rape kit, and that it was her grandmother who went forward to the police.
We’re told that Bradrick Vail will take the stand during this trial.