Pastor Demanded Young Boys Feed Him Grapes Before/After He Whipped Their Butts, Sexually Assaulted Them

Move over Eddie Long. Johnathan Alvarado, you, too. Clavon Leonard take a seat. Pastor Clavon Leonard -- who calls himself an "apostle" and has almost 10 churches in North Carolina, Florida, Texas and New Jersey -- has been accused of physically, spiritually and sexually abusing several young male "assistants," whom he refers to "armor bearers" -- which, we presume, are the same as Bishop Long's "spiritual sons." This is sad. Hilarious. And hilariously sad. Oh, and not all that surprising.

The armor bearers say they lived with Leonard and say their duties ranged from basic to bizarre. From cleaning his house and cutting his lawn to massaging Leonard seven days a week and serving him grapes. "I didn't control what time I woke up in the morning. I didn't control what time I went to bed. I didn't control what I ate,” said one former armor bearer. Leonard described their duties by saying, "They help, just like everybody else. There's a family.” The armor bearers claim if they failed at their assignments, they were beaten and tortured by Leonard. "Smacking the face, punching in the chest, whipping with a belt, whipping with the extension cord…” said one former armor bearer. One former armor bearer, who showed the I-Team his scars, maintains he received, “a hundred lashes” from Leonard for missing five o’clock prayer. Ayanna Stinson was married to Leonard. She says she witnessed the abuse. In one case, she says Leonard grabbed the private parts of an armor bearer. "He had this young man. He hadn't been in our house, maybe three weeks. This man was doubled over, screaming and he's telling him, 'shut your mouth, shut your mouth, don't you make no noise'. And I looked at him and said, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'you go back in the room.'” Leonard denied he ever abused the armor bearers, but added, “Yeah, I beat my kids and I have smacked some people.” Leonard says he doesn’t regret anything he has done to the armor bearers. The former armor bearers tell the I-Team, there was a code of silence. “He tells you, don't tell nobody. Don't tell nobody I'm beating you," said one armor bearer. "We didn't tell anybody. We told nobody and that's why there was no limit to what he felt like he could do to us." The armor bearers question why they stayed and so does Pastor Leonard. "If an allegation is true and you really believe that and you thought that was true, why didn't you go to authorities? Let the law handle it. If you've been abused, if you've been mishandled, if you've been, go. That's what I'd do,” said Leonard. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say no armor bearers have come forward to file a police report. The former armor bearers tell the I-Team they maintained their silence out of shame from the alleged sexual abuse and fear of being ostracized. One former armor bearer said, "I have to really take responsibility in my role. I stayed, you know. I allowed it."....Those who've left say they're grateful to God to be gone. One former armor bearer told the I-Team, "God is love. This is not love. We know this is not love. This is something perverted and this is not God."

source: WCNC

We can't find much about pastor, er, "apostle" Leonard online, but one Yahoo group claims he's gay and was living with eight "armor bearers." The group also says he has three children. The pastor's own Web site doesn't mention anything about his personal life, but goes on about his "prophetic gifts, pastoral heart, evangelistic boldness, and apostolic anointing have enabled him to become well known along the southeastern corridor and abroad" and "under tutelage he has a well trained staff of effective, obedient, evangelistic, and devoted leaders, that are equipped to do the work of God by the leading of the Holy Spirit." (Note: On his Web site, pastor Leonard refers to Kelcie and Alexis Leonard as his "daughters of destiny", so we're assuming they're his daughters or two former members of Destiny's Child.)


Some former "prophets" (the "obedient" the leaders he's trained at his how-to-become-a-prophet school) have referred to Clavon as "barbaric" and a "cult leader" who practices mind control. Coincidentally, one of his churches is called "New Birth Church", which sounds a lot of New Birth Baptist in Church in Atlanta where Eddie Long has been long strokin' teenage boys for years who mustered up the strength to come forward and sued him. (Eddie Long settled out of court for millions.)


We had no idea who this pastor, er, "apostle" is but after watching a few videos of him, our Gaydar Detector exploded. Take a look.





We wonder why his wife left? The stories she must have to tell. PS: How You Doin, Clavon!


UPDATE, May 3: Clavon's ex-wife is talking. She tells WCNC she had to divorce Clavon before she murdered him. "I mean, I had to leave when I did cause I really felt that I had got to the place where I would have killed him. Because my children are all I have," she said. She didn't Another interesting tidbit: Cops have launched an official investigation in the the claims he physically and sexually assaulted young boys. He is also interviewed, saying about the allegations: “There's never been anything substantiated. Nothing against the group home, never. Never been nothing against me. Never.” So because nothing has been substantiated, does it mean it's not true? Well, the cops are now on the case.



Thanks Trymaine for the tip.