Mike Huckabee’s Ghost Writer, a Child Molester?

Last week, Mike Huckabee controversially defended the Duggars in the wake of their child molestation scandal. Tonight, BuzzFeed revealed that Huckabee’s books were co-authored by an accused child molester.  Obviously no one thinks that Huckabee has any sympathy for this kind of behavior, but he certainly needs to select better colleagues.

BuzzFeed reports:

John Perry, a prolific author who co-wrote two books with former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and co-wrote one with Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, was accused of child molestation in two separate lawsuits, BuzzFeed News has found.

A 2012 police investigation of Perry’s alleged offenses found that “the allegations of sexual battery were sustained” but that the statute of limitations had expired.

Perry co-wrote Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America about Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign. He also did research and writing for Huckabee’s 2007 book Character Is the Issue, a memoir of his early time as governor. Perry also co-wrote So Help Me God, Moore’s autobiographical account of fighting to keep a monument to the Ten Commandments at Alabama’s Supreme Court.

Apparently, Perry lives in Nashville and has written other books for prominent conservatives.  Here’s what happened:

In a sworn affidavit submitted during divorce proceedings, Perry’s ex-wife attests that she “filed for divorce as a result of Mr. Perry’s inappropriate marital conduct, to which he admitted to in his Response to Interrogatories numbers 1 and 2.” Throughout the court documents, “inappropriate marital conduct” appears to be a euphemism for the alleged molestation.

Perry’s responses are not included in the case file.

Another filing, submitted by Perry’s ex-wife’s attorney earlier in the same proceedings, refers to Perry’s “admitted sexual abuse” of a minor child. Perry’s response to that filing — also submitted prior to his ex-wife’s affidavit — does not deny the abuse, or that Perry admitted it. Instead, Perry claims that “there was never any testimony or other evidence of any kind presented” to the court, “or any orders or findings of fact […] regarding any alleged sexual abuse of any minor child relative to the parties’ divorce or any other legal proceeding.”

This claim is not, however, necessarily incompatible with Perry’s ex-wife’s claim that Perry “admitted to” the alleged “inappropriate marital conduct” during the discovery process, because it appears that those findings were not technically “presented” to the court.

Likewise, a police investigation launched in 2012 found the allegations against Perry “were sustained,” according to a police department spokesperson, but that statute of limitations had passed.

“The alleged sexual battery was reported to have occurred when the victim was between the ages of 11 and 14,” said Nashville police department spokesperson Don Aaron in a statement to BuzzFeed News.

The article says that Perry was apparently ex-communicated from Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville.

I grieve over these scandals, but they certainly serve as a reminder that one should never presume integrity from “professional Christians.”