Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris admits to "inappropriate" sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl who, now an adult, recently went public about her abuse. His lawyer wanted her attorney to know that she was asking for it.
"It was your client," wrote lawyer J. Shelby Sharpe, referring to Clemishire at age 12, "who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client's bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen."
The Feb. 6, 2007, letter was one in a series of exchanges that year between Sharpe and Gentner Drummond, a lawyer who represented Clemishire at the time. Clemishire said in an interview last week she had been seeking $50,000 in restitution from Morris to cover the cost of counseling. Morris, through his lawyer, instead offered to pay $25,000, but the talks fell apart, Clemishire said, because she was not willing to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
There's the best defense the law allows, and then there's that. J. Shelby Sharpe says he doesn't remember writing it and doesn't have the time to read it now.
"I don't ever remember seeing that," Sharpe said after a reporter read the document to him. After a reporter offered to share a copy of the messages, Sharpe said he did not have time to read them and declined to share an email address.
Perhaps you can guess the focus of Sharpe's legal practice. From its "about" page:
Interestingly, since its inception, Mr. Sharpe has developed a specialty in representing religious organizations and their members. … This calling results in unique polities and governance and, often, in values and practices that may be contrary to secular culture and the civil laws of that culture.
Interestingly.