![]() December 4, 1984 (beginning Volume 2, page 10 of trial transcript) JERRY
FALWELL, the Plaintiff, was called as a witness, and after having first
been
duly sworn, testified as follows: DIRECT
EXAMINATION * * * Q. As
the years have gone on, Mr. Falwell, have
you devoted the entirety of your professional working life to the
development
of your ministerial activities starting at the Thomas Road Baptist
Church? A. There
is no time left for avocations of
past-times. I stopped golfing
twenty-five (25) years ago, not because I don't like it; you just can't
do it
at 3:00 in the morning. Q. Approximately
how many hours a day do you
work on your ministries? A. I
usually arise at 5:45 in the morning,
wherever I happen to be, and I usually go to bed at 12:00 or midnight
or 1:00
a.m. Q. Is
that a regime that you have followed
consistently for all of your professional working life? A. It
is, and the past twelve (12) months, a
typical year, we have traveled four hundred thousand (400,000) miles
speaking over twelve hundred (1,200) times. * * * Q. Would
you tell His Honor and the members of
this jury what your personal reaction was when you read this ad in
Exhibit One
over for the first time? A. I
think I have never been as angry as I was
at that moment. My first impression was
that Campari had purchased an ad in the magazine because I had seen a
similar
ad in decent magazines earlier, and my first thought was to get on the
phone to
Campari. Our
in-house attorney and I talked it over. My
anger became a more rational and deep hurt. I
somehow felt that in all of my life I had
never believed that human beings could do something like this. I really felt like weeping.
I am not a deeply emotional person; I don't
show it. I think I felt like weeping. * * * Q. Mr.
Falwell, are your [sic] familiar with the
three (3) letters that I have just handed up to you and which have been
presently marked as Exhibits 2-A, B and C for identification
respectively? A. Yes. Q. Would
you tell us what they are? A. Exhibit
A and Exhibit B are actually one
letter sent on the same day to different segments of the mailing file
of Moral
Majority. Q. What
was the difference between the segments to
which they were addressed. A. Twenty-six
thousand (26,000) of the people,
approximately, who received what is called here Exhibit A are the major
contributors to Moral Majority, and the four hundred and sixty thousand
(460,000), approximately, which are listed here as Exhibit B are to the
rank
and file grass-root membership but who would not be major contributors. * * * Q. Now,
let me address for the moment Exhibit
2-A and 2-B which was sent, as you say, by the Moral Majority. Can you tell us, please, I think you have
indicated there was approximately five hundred thousand (500,000) of
these sent
out. First, with respect to the
twenty-six thousand (26,000) that went to your major donors, within the
first
thirty (30) days in response to those letters, how much money was
received by
the Moral Majority? A. Forty-four
thousand, nine hundred and
thirty-one dollars and ninety-one cents ($44,931.91). * * * Q. With
regard to the larger number that went to
the grassroot supporters of the Moral Majority, which I think you said
was four
hundred and sixty thousand and some odd people, within the first thirty
(30) days how much revenue
was received? A. Seventy-seven
thousand, eight hundred and
twenty-four ($77,824). * * * Q. Now,
within thirty (30) days what was the
total amount of money received by the Old Time Gospel Hour in response
to these
three (3) types of mailings that went out on November 18, 1983? A. Six
hundred, twenty-three thousand, two
hundred and sixty-eight dollars and eighty-one cents ($623,268.81). Q. Subsequently,
was additional money received
beyond thirty (30) days? A. With
an additional thirty (30) days, another
forty-nine thousand, one hundred and eighty dollars and sixty-nine
cents
($49,180.69) received. Q. Making
the total receipts for the Old Time
Gospel Hour in response to the survival fund solicitation for the
letters of November
18, 1983, a total of how much? A. Six
hundred, seventy-two thousand, four
hundred, forty-nine dollars, fifty cents ($672,449.50). * * * Q. On
Page 20 the same ad that was published in
the November issue appears again. Did
you learn that this re-publication of the ad on which you were suing in
this
lawsuit had again been inserted into the pages of Hustler Magazine? A I
did. Q. When
you learned of that, Mr. Falwell, what was
your reaction or response or
feeling? A. It
was a re-opening of an already very deep
wound of personal anguish and hurt and suffering, such as nothing in my
adult
life I ever recall before. Q. Did
you feel debilitated by it? A. I
did, indeed. Q. Now,
you have mentioned what your reaction
was within the first days after first seeing the November '83 issue. Had those feelings that you have earlier
described to us gone away between October or November of '83 and
February or
March of '84? A. They
had not. Q. To
what extent did they continue to affect
you in your daily living, thinking and feeling? A. I
have never been to a psychiatrist or
psychologist in my life for personal help. I
am not sure but what I feel that as a Christian and a
minister -- I am
not sure it would not be wrong for me to do it. I
just have a personal feeling that as a Christian I
should be able to
take my personal burdens to the Lord. I
did not cut my schedule back; I did not stop anything I was doing, but
I can
tell you it has created the most difficult year of performance,
physically,
mentally, emotionally, in all of my life. Those
who work near me can
tell you that my ability to concentrate and focus on the job at hand
has been
greatly, greatly damaged. MR.
ISAACMAN: Your Honor, I am going to object to his testifying as to what
other
people could tell; it is hearsay. MR.
GRUTMAN: I agree. THE
COURT: All right. DIRECT
EXAMINATION CONTINUED: BY MR.
GRUTMAN: Q. Mr.
Fallwell, just tell us: As you know
yourself, was there any change or difference in your ability to focus
on the
tasks and responsibilities that you were fulfilling in the year that
has
passed? A. A
very severe difference. Q. To
what do you attribute it? A. To
the hurt inflicted upon me personally and
the defiling of my reputation; of the hurt inflicted upon me because of
the
embarrassment my family has gone through repeatedly; the injury and
emotional
anguish inflicted upon me due to the besmirching and defiling of my
dear
mother's memory; and my feeling of personal frustration because it not
only
appeared once, now it has appeared the second time, and according to
Mr.
Flynt's own testimony, he will do it whenever and as ever he pleases. * * * Q. Mr.
Falwell, as a man active in public life
and who has taken positions about subjects which
may be considered controversial, have
you been criticized or opposed in your ideas by various publications? A. Daily,
almost. Q. Have
you ever had caricatures drawn of you by
cartoonists? A. Again,
almost daily. * * * |