This looks like a story for ... Bible Girl! Only, well, she's off writing her book, so instead I'll just point your attention to this story out of Jacksonville, Florida, where pastor Darrell Gilyard today pleaded not guilty to sending sexually explicit text messages to a 14-year-old girl. And where's the local connection?
Well, he wound up in Jacksonville after he was run out of Richardson in 1991: Gilyard, described in The Dallas Morning News back then as "a charismatic young preacher who achieved nationwide attention as a protege of the Rev. Jerry Falwell," stepped down as pastor of the Victory Baptist Church of Richardson in July '91 after it was revealed he'd been screwing around with several members of his own congregation -- and three other churches. Among the complaints made against him at the time: everything from "suggestive late-night telephone calls to long-term sexual relationships with women he counseled." Like that won't come up in court this time around. --Robert Wilonsky
