A jury imposed a $500,000 verdict against Lewis Clemons, a pastor in Columbus, Georgia who sexually abused and raped our client. The case, Lequita Jackson v. Lewis Clemons, was tried in the Superior Court of Muscogee County, Georgia before Judge Ron Mullins for three days before the jury reached its verdict.
Our client, Mrs. Jackson, offered in writing to settle the case against Clemons for zero dollars if he would record a video in which he acknowledged his sexual abuse and apologized for it. He refused. So we took the case to trial. Our client and several other victims told the truth about Lewis Clemons’s sexual abuse and rape of themselves and others. Their testimony was detailed, impactful, true, and emotional. When called for cross-examination, Clemons testified that the victims were “faking it.” After the jury returned a verdict for a half million dollars against Clemons, Mrs. Jackson said that she was glad to have her day in court and relieved that the jurors saw through Defendant Lewis Clemons’s false denials.
Mrs. Jackson testified at trial, as did several other women and girls that Clemons had victimized. The evidence showed that Defendant Clemons followed a pattern in the women he preyed upon. As the flip chart that our lawyers, Jeb Butler and Morgan Lyndall, used at trial showed, Clemons would find a girl from a troubled background, gave them positions in his church so he could spend more one-on-one time with them, made increasingly sexual requests of them, justified his actions with scripture, asked them to “stimulate his nipples,” gave them a “body anointing” in which he had them strip down so that he could rub oil all over their bodies, and if he could establish enough control over the victim, went further to rape and other sexual abuse. Some of Clemons’s victims were under sixteen years old.
“Lequita Jackson is a wonderful client and it was an honor to provide her with her day in court,” said Jeb Butler. “Lewis Clemons is a liar and a fraud and I hope neither my client nor I have to see him again for as long as he lives.”
“I want to commend my client for having the strength to come forward and speak the truth to twelve members of her community,” added Morgan Lyndall. “The verdict sent a message that sexual assault and rape are never okay.”
Because of COVID-related precautions, the use of the courtroom was unusual. The jury sat in the galley, and witnesses testified from the jury box. The Butler Kahn extends a sincere thank you to Judge Mullins and the Superior Court of Muscogee County for allowing the trial to move forward despite the pandemic, and compliments Judge Mullins, the Superior Court, and its staff for the courtesy and efficiency that they showed throughout the trial.
The trial was not recorded on video. However the deposition of Defendant Lewis Clemons, which was taken two years before trial, is available online in full. In it he was cross-examined about his sexual abuse and rape.
author & press contact: Jeb Butler, jeb@butlerfirm.com
