Here is Sarah Smith of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
The fired Southern Baptist seminary leader who wanted to get an alleged rape victim alone to “break her down” also said it was a “good thing” she had been raped and that her future husband wouldn’t care if she was a virgin or not, according to the woman’s attorney.
Paige Patterson, a giant in the Southern Baptist world, was fired from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth on May 30 in response to his handling of sexual assault allegations. He had been pushed to president emeritus May 23.
The three alleged assaults took place in October 2014 and April 2015 and were reported in August 2015. The alleged assailant, according to the victim’s attorney, Stuart Cochran of Dallas, was a Southwestern student and employee.
“I am told he said it was a ‘good thing’ my client had been raped and that her future husband wouldn’t care if she was a virgin or not,” Cochran said of Paige in a statement to the Star-Telegram. “He threatened to sic lawyers on her [mother] for questioning his leadership at the school when she asked why the assailant was allowed on campus.”
Cochran said that Patterson sent around an email calling the woman’s mother “nuts.”
A request sent to Patterson for comment through his then-chief of staff at Southwestern, Scott Colter, has not been returned. Colter is no longer at Southwestern.
After the alleged assaults and Patterson’s behavior, Cochran said, the woman withdrew voluntarily from the seminary.
Read the rest here. Indeed, Paige Patterson’s world HAS collapsed around him.
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