Q&A: Haggard's Accuser Tells His Story
Former escort Mike Jones says he had a three-year sexual relationship with megachurch pastor Ted Haggard and helped him obtain drugs.
By Andrew Murr
Nov. 3, 2006 - Denver fitness consultant and former gay escort Mike Jones came forward this week charging that he had a three-year sexual relationship for pay with megachurch pastor Ted Haggard. Haggard, a married father of five, is the leader of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the president of the politically connected National Association of Evangelicals, which has 30 million members nationwide. On Thursday, Haggard resigned as pastor and as NAE president pending an investigation.
Haggard denied the charges in a TV interview Wednesday, but late Thursday night New Life’s acting Pastor Ross Parsley wrote an e-mail to the church staff, obtained by The Denver Post, alerting them that “he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true." Friday morning, Haggard told a KUSA reporter that "I called
to buy some meth, but I threw it away." Haggard continued to deny using methamphetamines or having sex with Jones, whom Haggard said he contacted for a massage after getting a referral from a staffer at a Denver hotel.
NEWSWEEK’s Andrew Murr spoke by phone late Thursday night with Jones, 49, at his apartment in Denver. Friday morning, Jones failed a lie detector test before making an appearance on a radio station that arranged for the test. The administrator of the test said Jones might have failed because of stress or because of his inability to sleep. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: How did you meet Ted Haggard?
Mike Jones: I used to do escorting. I don’t know where he found me exactly, but I used to advertise on a site called Rentboy.com and in gay publications in Denver. I usually don’t even ask them . He called up and told me he was Art from Kansas City. And I never thought anything about it. Big deal. He kept calling, and usually he blocked the number. But as time went on, he stopped doing that. He would always call from payphones, but all of a sudden they would always be from 719 (the area code centered on Colorado Springs). I thought, you know what? I’m not stupid. He’s got to be connected with a church somehow. But it meant nothing to me. He was very nice, and I’ve seen clergy before. They always call from payphones....
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15548841/site/newsweek/
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