CONTEXTUAL OVERVIEW: Child sex abuse cases have plauged the Catholic Church for decades but had been less public in protestant denominations. That changed in 2019 when the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News exposed sex abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) going back to 1998. Over 700 victims had been violated by 380 pastors. The largest denomination in America and predominantly White, the SBC covered up the abuse. The revelation in the article were referred to as the church's "Apocolypse."
Being silent about the secret sins of the religiously powerful is not racially exclusive. Black churches have generally avoided addressing child sexual abuse which often askews pursuing accountability.
Disturbing allegations emerging from the state of Texas, have been directly linked to Bishop TD Jakes' mega church, the Potter's House, the larget Black church in America. His daughter, Cora Jakes Coleman, a pastor at the church, and her ex-husband Richard Brandon Coleman were both accused of different forms of abuse. The Colemans are now facing sordid allegations while one remains inside the prison walls and the other inside of the church walls. While Mr. Coleman is serving time in prison on a child sex abuse charge, an accuser has implicated that both he and Cora cannived her into allowing them to "adopt" her child. After announcing thier divorce Cora is starting over with their kids who may have been hurt in the process. This situation adds the Black Church to the fray of reliious bodies associated with sexual indiscretions within prostestanism, plunging the perverted act of taking advantage of children sexually into the open in the Black community.
In light of these recent violations in the church, it is an opportune time to have healinig conversations about church hurt before more damage is done.
Silence on the Jakes-Coleman situation has eft "internet investigators" digging for answers.
The Slice News will follow the story and add more details to the initial report on the matter below as they become available.
By Mona Austin
Daughter of Bishop TD Jakes, Cora Jakes Coleman ended her marraige three months before her husband was arrested on sex abuse charges. Richard Brandon Coleman (AKA Skii AIlantra, a Dalls-based Christian rapper ) was jailed on continuous childhood sex abuse charges at the Wayne MacCullon Detention Center in Waxahachie County Texas, located in Ellis. He was arrested on a warrant on April 25 in Grand Prairie, TX.
Legal affairs involving minors come with restrictions on information sharing. The records are sealed until the case goes to court. This may explain why the ordeal has not been covered by large news outlets either locally or nationally. Thus far, the story has been derived from speculative nuts and bolts on the internet. That is until now.
The Slice News has uncovered the following facts about the arrest:
Richard Brandon Coleman was arrested on a warrant in Grand Prairie Texas on April 25. (It has previously been assumed that his arrest was on May 4, the date listed on the booking record at the Ellis jail.)
Coleman was transported to the Ellis jail, located 30 miles South of Dallas where he resides and booked on May 4 for "continuous sexual abuse of a child or children." He may have been transferred to the country where the warrant oriinated.
The cash bond was set at $150,000 (Note: Bond is generally set based on the severity of the crime.)
The case has been filed with the DAs office but there are no current dates set a represenatie from the DAs office confirmed.
According to the Ellis County Clerks office, typically when an arrest is made in a place outside of the county where the warant is served in Texas an inmate is given 10 days to be picked up and taken to the jail in their area. For unknown reasons, Coleman has been in the Wayn McCollum Dentention Center for the past 28 days as of this report.
Mr. Coleman remains jailed in limbo without bail, awaiting a court date.
After over 10 years of marraige, Cora announced via Instagram that she was getting a divorce posting:
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce that my husband and I have decided to divorce,” she said. “This is a very private and personal matter and I kindly ask for your prayers as I prioritize myself, and most importantly, my children’s well being at this time. God bless."
The Director of Destiny House Children's Ministry of The Potter's House of Dallas made the said announcement in January of 2022, three months before her ex-husband was jailed.
Cora Jakes Coleman divorce announcement as posted to Instagram.
As it was a private matter she did not disclose details about why the relationship with the man who she thought was God-sent was severed. The popular "Faithing It" author, age 34 is known for having bold faith and being a believer in the effectiveness of prayer. Despite her love for children and undoubted prayers, she is barren. The Colemans became parents through the adoption of a daughter Amauri, 13, and son Jason, 7,
The reason for the divorce may have begun to come to light in the court of public opinion when the arrest record was released online. The victim has been presumed to be 13-year-old Amauri, the first of the two children they adopted. However, without any information on the case it is merely an unconfirmed rumor. Some reports indicate a source close to the family said it was Amauri. Cora had also mentioned the need to protect her children.
The Jakes family is being criticized for being quiet about a matter that could affect the Potter's House congregation. They kept the split out of the public eye from January through May, which some say was the result of them deliberately concealing the alleged abuse.
The scandal for Cora and by proxy the Jakes family, does not end here.
Woman accuses Cora Jakes of Taking Her Son
Michelle Loud posted three "tell-all" videos to her Facebook account accusing Pastor Cora Jakes, Richard Brandon Coleman and the Jakes family of various malicious acts against her. They are lengthy, encompassing several years of her relationship with the COlemans datin bac to 2015, and are listed in no particular order. Click the blue link to hear her claims.
WARNING: THe vidoes below contain explicit slangauge that is not appropriate for children.
Alarming allegations from a Dallas woman recently surfaced. Michelle Loud, who claims to be the birth mother of their adopted son alleges Pastor Cora Jakes set her up to take her child. In a video that is making its rounds on Tik Tok and You Tube, Loud tosses discretion aside making several incendiary claims about Cora specifically and some about the couple working in tandem to take her biological son. She tearfully accused the couple of haivn and ulterior motive to take her child if she did not cooperate, which they did after he was 1 year old. At the time she says she did not know her rights.
Jason's biological mother admits that she had some challenges with postpartum depression, had smoked pot (something she said she got for Cora and Brandon), and has been jailed -- none are factors that made her an unfit parent as she kept all of her other children. She lost Jason because Cora "preyed" on her weaknesses she said.
"She was not there to help me. She was there to take my child," Loud angrily declared.
Michelle alleges that Cora used prophetic ministry as a fascade to get her way. A prophet told Michelle that God used her to bear Cora's child. Further, she claims that Cora recorded her conversations when she met with her to get help. She said she never wanted to give up her son and now that Brandon is in jail for allegedly raping and abusing Amauri she is desparately attempting to get Jason competely out of harm's way.
Jason was granted to the Colemans through a court in what Loud believes was a "fixed" proceeding where she never took the stand.
“I represented myself in trial, in trial by myself,” Michelle told her social media followers, explaining she was not equipped to stand up to the wealth and power alone. “And I had to sit up there and come to an agreement because I didn’t know how to fight no more.”
The alleged deception may have crossed lines of confidentiality as well.
“She had me in front of a f*cking MacBook recording and asking me questions talking about it was ‘counseling’ but it wasn’t counseling because later on down the line, a few years later, she would then use that evidence against me in court when I went to fight for my son,” the Dallas resident shared.
"I wanted to beleive that there could be reconciliaton, but representation can not happen without truth," said Loud in a video posted to Facebook on May 18.
While the release of the baby boy to Cora did not appear to be a normal adoption, at some point she said Cora was willing to pay her.
"She offered me money and I didn't take it," she confessed, suggesting that there was an attempt to buy her child and operate outside of the usual parameters of adoption or that it was "hush money." During the rant the mother-of-four repeatedly insisted that she only approached Pastor Cora for help and never wanted to give up her baby.
To critics who may be questioning her timeline she said she spoke out the entire time and is going public despite being blocked by a NDA (Non-discolosre greement) to get the truth out.
Did the heartache from the inability to conceive drive Cora and Brandon to coerce a mom to forcibly submit to giving up her child?
"Conception is not something that is warranted to the worthy. It is warranted to those who are adorned to what God wants to do here on earth," . . .Becasue we don't want to go through the process, we don't have the capacity to care for." Sermon: Don't Divide the Baby- Pastor Cora Jakes Coleman
Cora had shared her journey to motherhood with Madam Noire, an online magazine for Black women. Her desire to give birth naturally was prevented by health issues. At the age of 22, Cora was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic ovaries syndrome) after a car accident. She founded Fertility Faith Ministry to help other Black women cope with reproductive health, admitting that infertility was a mental and emotional struggle for her:
“When you find out about your infertility, it can automatically become an embarrassing thing, a shameful thing,” she said. “What happens in this house stays in this house, let's sweep it under the rug and not look at it. And my hope and desire is to bring a positive spin on infertility overall. That it isn't just affecting women, but it is affecting people; whereby we become comfortable in a dead space and are not able to position ourselves for greatness. I think ...we need to come out, to speak life against the shame of infertility." Since she can not reproduce in the natural way, Cora identifies herself as a "heart" mom.
Cora praticed manifesting thoughts even after it was determiend she could not have children.
With the belief that God had promised her a son, Cora said she had been writing letters to the son she expected to have since the age of 10 that she named "Nehemiah". She had a hard time accepting that what she beleived since she was a child would not come to fruition. She tried other alternatives to make her dream of motherhood a reality. Early in their marraige the couple went through two rounds of IVF (Invitro fertilization). Each time it failed. Cora says she got a child "right after" both times the IVF procedure did not work.
The process for adoption in the state of Texas is not immediate. Prospective adoptive parents can be either single or married, and must:
Be at least 21 years old
Be financially stable
Complete an application to adopt
Share background and lifestyle information
Provide references
Provide proof of marriage and/or divorce (if applicable)
Have a completed home study
Submit to a criminal background and child abuse checks on all adults living in the household (Source: Adoption Answers web site.)
Birth certificate of child mentioned in accuser Michelle Loud's alleed dispute with Psator Cora Jakes.
This year Cora spent mother's day with her family as a sinlge mom. She also brought back baby christenings to Destiny World. Her ex-husband was not pictured in the family Christmas photo in Christmas of 2021. A long-awaited copy of Jason's transferred birth certicate was posted to Cora's Facebook page in 2020 that showed her name only as the parent. Single motherhood is shunned in the church and the Black community.
The deceptive acts of which Cora is accused are not only immoral, but unethical in nature and could account for violations of certain laws if charges are filed against her.
Due to the dubious nature of claims surrounding how the couple acquired parentship over Jason, it appears Ms. Loud is not only seeking help in getting her son back, but also wants to hold the entire Jakes family accountable for the alleged parent trap.
DISCLAIMER: The reporting in this article is governed by the "Fair Use" principles under the FOIA and relevant guidelines of the Personal Information Act. All parties are innocent until proven guilty.