Uploaded to YouTube just two days after the initial sexual abuse allegations against Atlanta pastor Eddie Long, this video — depicting original complainants Anthony Flagg and Maurice Murray Robinson — could just be the beginning of a campaign to discredit the accusers.
While Flagg and Robinson’s attorney B.J. Bernstein insisted to local media the part “don’t party, stay out all night or smoke dope,” bystanders might assume otherwise after watching this clip, where they chat about getting high and going after women (“That’s his girl, I make her wetter”), with the N-word laced throughout.
“We’re talking about young men who spend their Sundays all day at church,” Bernstein has said of her clients, who were joined by fellow twentysomethings Jamal Parris and Spencer LeGrande in claiming Long abused his spiritual power to begin sexual relationships with them.
The video, which was shot in a classroom although it’s unclear when, was uploaded Sept. 23 by Kimora Cochran — who on her website describes her history as having been “crowned Miss Black Michigan USA, dappled in modeling, gracing book covers and billboards, but my first love, hands down, has been the U.S justice system.” The description reads: “On September 21 Anthony Flagg and another gentleman by the name of Maurice Robinson Accused Mega church leader Bishop Eddie Long of sexual Coercion. In this video, sent over and found by Imnotjaded.com shows another side of Anthony Flagg… a side that suggest he’s not gay at all or was this before he came out of the closet?? Maurice is also in the video. The two were friends in high school Hmmmm…”
And while the video, by no means, has any bearing on whether their allegations against Long are true, keep in mind Long has a multi-million dollar vehicle behind his reputation. So while he hasn’t denied the allegations against him, he has promised to fight the the charges. Whether it’s in court or in public remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, photos of Long and some of his LongFellow Academy youth have popped up on the website HipHopBlog — in the very private office where some of Long’s accusers say he took advantage of them. And in light of recent events, of course they look creepy now.
[via]
EARLIER:
Julian Bond Can’t Stop Calling Pastor Eddie Long a ‘Raving Homophobe’
‘Daddy’ Eddie Long: I’m Gonna Fight These Accusations Like David Fought Goliath
Cam
He can try to discredit them all he wants, there are two additional accusers who don’t know any of the other accusers apparently, who gave their stories to a separate set of people and they match up with the story that these two tell.
He is toast.
Calling Monica Lewinshi a whore didn’t mean it didn’t happen, and George Reckers trying to attack the newspaper reporters who wrote the story didn’t mean it didn’t happen. This guy should know better.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
How so very strange……There were no unattractive kids that needed his own special brand of “mentoring”????
tjr101
Well I must say the pastor apparently has very good taste.
Bob
What language were they speaking?
Adam
The question of Anthony Flagg being gay is irrelevant. One does not need to be gay to be coerced into sexual acts with another man… duh!
Samwise
@Adam: You took the words right out of my mouth. With her comment, Kimora Cochran not only *literally* blames the victims, but basically blames all male victims of sexual assault. A sadly common assumption: that any man can and will fight back against rape, so if he doesn’t, that must mean he’s gay and “wanted it.” (Of course, even if he was gay, that wouldn’t mean he wanted it.)
This is all just horrible.
Jeffrey
Ahh….. The future of America!
Andy
@Adam: Didn’t you know? If you’re gay, it’s obvious you wanted it. It’s like women and their slutty ankles who want to be raped.
Black Pegasus
Those guys in the photos are very handsome.
Bishop “Eddie Long Lies” has decent taste.
As for the video, I couldn’t sit thru it all because of the asinine behavior. That video could be very damaging once CNN is pressured to air it..
Rex DeLaCoeur
A little perspective…
Fabulous and NeYo had a song “you make me better”
A mixtape remix version was “make you wetter”. First 5 seconds if the vid and I knew that this was what they were singing. Says nothing about their character except that they keep up with pop culture… Not a surprise for young black men.
Lame attempt…
hmm
ooo gurrrl, you “dappled” in modeling?? Can you please “dapple” in some English spelling classes too while you’re at it?
LL
“While Flagg and Robinson’s attorney B.J. Bernstein insisted to local media the part ‘don’t party, stay out all night or smoke dope,’ bystanders might assume otherwise after watching this clip, where they chat about getting high and going after women (‘That’s his girl, I make her wetter’), with the N-word laced throughout.”
Bernstein insisted what exactly? Something’s missing from this paragraph.
counterpoll
The “Pastor” most certainly didn’t choose ugly, out of shape “men” to bestow gifts of cash, cars, college tuition, or exotic voyages.
That makes one question the motives behind his largesse and his “charity” work.
Were there no youths in wheelchairs or with excess weight who met his criteria for “spiritual” training in “manhood”?
SomethingElse
Ugh, they sound like a real high IQ bunch (sarcasm). But, really, I don’t see how this would discredit any of the claims against Long. It DOES seem to be suspicious that he was only mentoring the generally physically-attractive. Like Counterpoll says, Where are the fat kids? (But again I’m speaking without knowing everything about Long or these guys or the overall picture and I know how careful we have to be before all facts come in. Haven’t past cases taught us that?)
Sexy Rexy
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: No, you mentor them with paper bags.
McMike
How are teens being teens somehow discrediting them? So, they’re normal teens bullshitting with each other like normal teens do? I think all the video of the good pastor looking gay as f*ck is all the evidence I need to realize who’s right and who’s wrong.
B
No. 1 · Cam wrote, “He can try to discredit them all he wants, there are two additional accusers who don’t know any of the other accusers apparently, who gave their stories to a separate set of people and they match up with the story that these two tell.”
Well, one of the four (the last) was from a different church, which is a pretty good indication that he didn’t know the others.
Unless I’m mistaken, there were three from the same church, including the two airheads in the video. Whether all of those three knew each other is not clear – I wouldn’t make an assumption either way, but we should get a pretty good idea if these guys get cross examined. I’m sure Eddie Long’s legal team (he can afford one) will look for any evidence of collusion, so if they pass that test, their credibility will go up a notch. Also, nobody said which of the three burglarized the church (or whatever it was). Was it one of the two airheads or the third guy?
B
No. 14 · SomethingElse wrote, “Ugh, they sound like a real high IQ bunch (sarcasm). But, really, I don’t see how this would discredit any of the claims against Long.”
Easy (remember, it is highly trained lawyers who will do the discrediting and who are good at it – Long will probably have a legal team that could convince 20% of the American public that Mother Teresa was an ax murderess). They’ll point out that these guys hung out together and worked together, and just might have colluded together to frame Long. If the other from the same church is the burglar, they’ll use that to discredit him. For the fourth guy, they’ll point out that he did not come forward until the others’ stories were reported in the press, so of course his story was similar (and proves nothing since, if Long is innocent, the fourth guy could just be in it for the money and just made up a tale that matched what the others had already said).
Fair? You be the judge but don’t be surprised if this sort of argument is what Long’s lawyers use: his best hope is to discredit the witnesses so they are going to pull out all the stops.
Black Pegasus
Forget those clowns in the video, you guys need to see this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9CBOdALMBs
It’s Jamal Parris! He’s one of the victims!
He’s cute and articulate.. (not that it should matter, but you know)
Natasha
All this video shows is that Anthony Flagg and Maurice Robinson are two young boys that are doing what a normal teenaged boy would do! Actually this video is more damaging to Bishop long because it shows the boys in a light that makes it hard to see them plotting and planning against a powerful preacher such as Bishop Long.These young men to me look as if they cannot fake a story so far reaching as the one they have stated. They are young boys and in this video appear to have a great sense of humor and clearly are concerned about making APY (standardized test in GA)the fact that they are talking about making girls “wetter” indicates to me all the more reasons why they would not tarnish their reputation of being straight to being homosexual. It proves more that the allegations are true more than likelihood of being false. Sorry Bishop!
Natasha
@Bob: Excuse me, tell me something what is APY? It is a test that determines how much funding a GA school will receive for that school year, clearly they are not as dumb as you are implying.
Taylor Siluwé
This vid is just kids goofin’ for camera. To call them low IQ is just idiotic. This will in no way discredit anything, except maybe with people already too willing to forgive the horny ‘Bishop’.
And like I said when the allegations first arose, I knew all the accusers would be good-looking. I wasn’t wrong.
‘Cause we all know fat, buck-toothed youngsters with bad skin don’t need mentoring.
ewe
Don’t ya all love that christian “treat your neighbor as thyself” love garbage from the pastor huhself? He would spend his time telling those that dump cash into his “basket” that they should turn the other cheek while he launches his own smear campaign. It is not going to fly. He better take his money while he has it and fly the coup cause nobody wants him at the center of the stage once we hear all the juicy details. I have no doubt the pastor either seduced these guys with drugs and alcohol and/or partied right alongside them. Time will tell.
Taylor Siluwé
@ewe:
Yes, all those good Christian aphorisms, gotta luv ’em:
— “treat your neighbor as thyself” unless they’re homos
— “love the sinner, but hate the sin” unless they’re homos
— “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” unless their Jesus Pimpin’ game is as strong as Eddie Long’s
May they all burn in their own hypocritical Hell.