June 8, 15, 2012 Show - Brittany Koper Interview

Brittany Crouch-Koper Interview - PART 1  

with Jackie Alnor, host of Rapture Ready Radio’s ‘Apostasy Alert’

– June 7, 2012

[Brittany Crouch-Koper is the daughter of Paul Crouch Jr. She is the former Chief Financial Officer of TBN who is embroiled in several lawsuits with her grandparents, Paul and Jan Crouch. The one-hour interview transcript will be in two to three parts due to its length. {For background information, see the Orange County Register’s blog on the scandal at:
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/05/17/tbn-to-judge-stop-watchdog-blogger/155112/ }]

J: Hi Brittany, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed.

B: TBN, they’re going in for another restraining order today and tomorrow in two different cases.

J: How can they block your right to free speech?

B: They’re saying that I am violating – when I was an employee there, I signed a confidentiality agreement that basically said I wouldn’t disclose any trade secrets of the company. So they’re trying to expand it to mean, you know, my whole life. And they have millions of dollars or more and so they’re going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees to try and keep me quiet and issue restraining orders and drag my attorney into court every other day. They have gotten a very limited restraining order in a previous case trying to seal a declaration that I had filed, which they were able to do temporarily. Yesterday, the judge ruled that – like they had no standing and so he said that the documents would be made public and took away the original restraining order. And of course TBN freaked out and took me to two other judges in two different courts and are re-filing for the same restraining order. So it’s another day in the life.

J: I have heard so many times that people that have crossed TBN, that they have been threatened or felt fearful for their safety. Do you feel that way?

B. Yes. I have to tell you that it has crossed my mind. And I have been warned. Various people have reached out to me who have been down that road and said, “Be careful, you know, I had my brakes cut.” So, it’s something I’m aware of. Am I fearful? No. But I know it’s a very strong possibility and it wouldn’t surprise me if they sent assassins. They already have a private detective following me around. 

It’s very surreal for me. This whole situation; it’s very surreal and it’s just one of those things that you just have to take one day at a time. And it’s definitely one of those character building moments that your parents tell you about when you’re a kid where you just go, oooh when will this end?

But I’m very encouraged; I’m very inspired by the people who have reached out to me and encouraged me in different ways. And it just fortifies my belief that I’m doing the right thing. This is the right thing to do. And that’s why I’m able to continue doing it despite the rash of lawsuits, and all these flying accusations and every day being a sparring match with my family. Yeah, it’s a long road but I’m definitely in it for the long haul. I’m certainly not doing this to try to “get a big payday” like everybody’s saying, “she just wants a big payday.” No. Believe me. There are easier things in life to do in order to earn a living.

I’m really doing this because I think the world needs to know. I really feel convicted to tell the truth and to stand up for what’s right. TBN has bullied so many people for over the past three years and they’ve gotten away with it because they’re scary people. They’re terrifying and they have endless funds to continue their reign of terror and they’ve been able to intimidate people and scare them into keeping quiet and spend money on attorneys in able to keep their mouths shut. Unfortunately for them, I’m not easily intimidated and that’s not gonna happen.

J: Who do you see as the one calling the shots to be intimidating to people of your relatives?

B: Oh gosh! Well right now, I really see it as my Uncle Matt. He’s a very vengeful person and this is personal to him. I “blew the whistle” on many of the illegal things that were happening in regards to his income like, for example, his income was not reported on their 990s and that was one of the things I was bringing up and what’s going on here – the hundreds of thousands of dollars of payments to his for-profit company which were not properly recorded on TBN’s 990s as we were required to do so. He has it out for me. This is a personal vendetta that he is waging against me. He and my grandmother have a very interesting relationship;  a very close relationship. She’s supporting him and there you have it. There’s two members of the Board of Directors of the three – the majority of the Board.

I also feel like it’s TBN’s general counsel, John Casoria. He’s calling a lot of the shots. He’s general counsel. If TBN were doing something that were not in the best interest of TBN, it’s his job to speak up and say otherwise. And he’s not. He’s continuing down this road and the further they go, you know, the more they’re going to be exposed. And that’s fine with me because that’s what I’m trying to do anyway.

J: With John Casoria (Jan Crouch's nephew) – what’s the difference between his position and Colby May?

B: John Casoria is the in-house counsel. His office is there in Tustin and Colby May is TBN’s “FCC attorney,” so he makes sure that their licenses are renewed and they file for copyrights. But Colby May was never involved in the day-to-day activities of TBN like John was.

J: But he’s very vocal against you.

B: He is. And you know for some reason I don’t know why. They’ve made him the mouthpiece, for lack of a better word. I’m not sure why. That’s just the way they chose to do it. That’s fine with me. I think it’s because John is so close to a lot of the allegations, that maybe they would look better if they had somebody that wasn’t so involved to take care of public announcements.

J: And how is your father dealing with all of this?

B: He’s doing okay. You know obviously, he’s torn. It’s hard for him. He doesn’t deal with conflict very well. But he supports me. He loves me. I talk with him, probably once a week, and just say, “hey dad, how’s it going?” And talk about the weather and whatever.

J: Is his relationship still good with his parents?

B: No. My grandparents have not spoken to me or really anybody in my family since October. It’s very odd. It’s like I’m dead to them. At first it was very hurtful because I was very close to my grandmother, especially when I was in high school and college. And for some reason, she just totally cut me out of her life. And I’ve reached out to her; I’ve called her. We used to exchange text messages all the time, “I love you grandma.” Thanksgiving was definitely very very hard for me; a very emotional day. It’s because it was the first Thanksgiving where I haven’t had my grandmother’s stuffing and just silly stuff like that. It was devastating really. And then Christmas came and went and I was the only person in my family my grandmother didn’t get – she bought everybody personalized bibles – they’re actually very beautiful. But she bought everybody in my family a personalized Bible for Christmas, but I didn’t get one.

And I sent her a text message on Christmas Day and I said, “I love you so much grandma no matter much. Thank you so much for teaching me about Jesus.” And I haven’t received any reply. So I stopped trying. I figured she would contact me when and if she was ever ready. My birthday came and went and I didn’t hear anything. The first year in 27 years I didn’t receive balloons on my birthday from my grandma.

J: How devastating that is. I just can’t imagine how you dad, who seemed to be running TBN, at least it appeared the way he always handled Behind-the-Scenes and all of that, how he must be feeling because it looks like he’s cut out of his inheritance.

B: Honestly, he’s fine. He’s rebounded. He’s on his feet. He’s very excited about the opportunities he has in front of him. He called me and said, “I’m happier now than I ever have been.” The gentleman he’s working for is the nicest guy he’s ever met in his life and he has more free time to spend with my sister and do the things that he really enjoys. And he actually says his life is better now than when I was there.

J: I saw that picture with you and Melissa Scott, referring to her as “Mommy Melissa.” Is there a reason for that?

B: Ya know, not really. She’s a wonderful person. She’s very kind; she treats us very wonderful and we really like her a lot. She makes my dad happy and that’s what I’m concerned about. As long as my dad’s happy, then we’re happy.

J: Are there any marriage plans?

B: Not as far as I’m aware of. She’s pretty funny. She’s got a wonderful sense of humor. And I think I just did it as a joke. I don’t even know.

J: I was just wondering because she was very recognizable. I used to go to Faith Center when her late husband [Gene Scott] was alive. That was one of my first churches in the 1980s when I got saved. Have you seen the Behind-the-Scenes with the way that they’ve been behaving in the past month of so with Jan and Paul being all kissy-face and all of that. Have you been watching any of that?

B: No, I have not. I try not to turn on TBN to be honest. It’s very hurtful right now to see my family…

J: Can you confirm that Jan and Paul haven’t been together as a married couple in quite some time?

B: I know ever since I was a little girl they never lived together. So what goes on behind closed doors, I can’t really testify to; I was never around that. But I do know it’s always been Grandma had her house and Papa had his house and that’s the way it was. And I never really asked questions; that’s just the way it always has been.

J: It just seems so odd for them to act all lovey-dovey chummy which they have not done, because I do watch them. I monitor it a lot. And so I saw this dramatic change. But what bothered me, and I played it on my radio show a couple of weeks ago was a clip in which Jan says if any devil comes against TBN, I don’t care who he uses to come against TBN, we will fight him with every inch of my breath – or whatever- despite the consequences. And she said that twice, despite the consequences, whatever the consequences. And I just thought to myself, do they think of you as a consequence?

B: I don’t know. I don’t know what they think; I really don’t know what’s going through their minds right now. I just know that I feel like I’m doing the right thing. This is the right thing to do. They’ve been getting away with a lot of things that need to be exposed that are not only illegal, but also unconscionable. And enough is enough! Where does it end? So, you know, if they want to continue to make threats against me, that’s their prerogative. I love them no matter what. I always will. If I saw my grandma tomorrow, I’d go up to her and hug her and tell her how much I love her and I’ve missed her. I really hold no grudges, but at the same time I’m not going to give in to something that in my mind is an injustice.

J: Can you confirm that Matthew Crouch is not Paul Crouch’s biological offspring?

B: Um, I haven’t seen paternity test results or anything like that, but I do know – I can say that I’ve had conversations with my grandmother on more than one occasion, when we were out together or having dinner together…she basically, she’s admitted to me and to others more than once that Matthew is a product of an affair that she had with Mr. America 1954. His name was Dick Dubois.

J: Do you think that is why she is more partial to Matthew because of his paternity?

B: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, I think Matthew is, from what she’s told me, is he’s her love-child. And that is why he’s been able to get away with so much – so much of this cutting corners and contracts with million dollar movies. There’s no way they would have agreed to do this with my dad’s production company. He had a production company for a long time that did not do any work for TBN. And she’s protecting her “love-child.”

J: Do you think that Paul Sr. knows about this?

B: No. Absolutely not. 

J: You don’t think he knows that’s not his true son?

B: I don’t think – If he does, he’s in denial about it. My grandparents, they live in their own reality. They kind of make up their own rules of what they want to believe. And so if he was made aware of it at some point, he has completely blocked it out.

To be continued....