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911 Call Reveals a Drunk and Bloody Jerry Falwell Jr.
The saga around the homophobic and now-disgraced Christian right leader just keeps growing.
September 17 2020 11:03 PM EST
September 17 2020 7:03 AM EST
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The saga around the homophobic and now-disgraced Christian right leader just keeps growing.
The Jerry Falwell Jr. saga continues, with the news that emergency responders were called to his home when he was apparently drunk and had injured himself.
Becki Falwell called 911 around 2:30 a.m. August 31 and reported that her husband had been drinking and was bleeding, according to HuffPost, which obtained audio of the call and police records. She said he had called her at church a few hours earlier and said he had fallen down the stairs, and when she arrived at their house in Bedford County, Va., she had had to break through the back door with a chair to get in because all the doors were locked.
She declined to say how much he'd been drinking, and she said he had refused to let her take him to the hospital. When emergency personnel arrived, "a responder observed lacerations on Jerry Falwell Jr.'s face, including under his left eye, across the bridge of his nose, and above both his right and left eyes," HuffPost reports. "The responder also recorded in a report that Jerry Falwell Jr. said he hit his head on a trash can, and that there was 'blood in the area he indicated' as well as 'empty alcohol containers.' The officer also noted 'Jerry had slurred and slowed speach (sic) and would repeat things already asked.'"
The incident came a few days after Falwell Jr., a well-known anti-LGBTQ+ activist and ally of Donald Trump, resigned as president of Liberty University, the right-wing Christian school founded by his late televangelist father. His resignation came in the wake of various reports of conduct that would violate the university's honor code, which prohibits alcohol consumption and sex outside of heterosexual marriage, and requires modest dress.
A photo that circulated on social media showed him on a boat with a woman described as his wife's assistant, both of them with their pants unzipped; he was holding a glass of dark liquid that he said was merely colored water. Falwell was placed on leave by Liberty August 7.
Then Giancarlo Granda, a young man who'd had business dealings with the Falwells, gave an interview to Reuters saying he'd had a relationship with the couple that involved him having sex with Becki Falwell while her husband watched. The couple denied reports of voyeurism but said Becki had been having an extramarital affair and that the man involved was trying to extort them. Granda said there was no extortion involved. There had been reports earlier that former Trump fixer Michael Cohen had been working with the Falwells to cover up racy pictures. The Granda interview, published August 24, led to Falwell's resignation the next day.
A few days later additional scandalous allegations emerged, with a man telling Politico that when he was a Liberty student and spending the night at the Falwells' home, Becki Falwell got into bed with him and performed oral sex on him. She then pressed for a continued relationship, he said. The Falwells said the story is not true.
HuffPost sought comment from the Falwells and their lawyer regarding the 911 call, but no one responded. A Liberty University spokesman also did not respond.