DEL.ICIO.USBishop Weeks pleads guilty to aggravated assault
'My emotions got the best of me,' he says
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/11/08
Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated assault for attacking his wife, evangelist Juanita Bynum, and avoided jail time with her blessing.
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 Jenni Girtman/AJC |
| Rev. Juanita Bynum (left) and Bishop Thomas Weeks (right) hold a joint press conference outside the Fulton County Courthouse Tuesday. |
 Jenni Girtman/AJC |
| Rev. Juanita Bynum (left) and Bishop Thomas Weeks embrace after a joint press conference outside the Fulton County Courthouse on Tuesday. |
A warm embrace between the embattled couple the day before the trial led to forgiveness and set a plea deal in motion. Lawyers for Weeks left a conference Monday on the couple's pending divorce to meet with the Fulton County district attorney in an attempt to resolve the criminal case.
On Tuesday, Weeks and his defense team were prepared to go to trial when Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard accepted the bishop's guilty plea. Weeks admitted to grabbing his wife, pushing her to the ground and kicking her in the parking lot of the Renaissance Concourse Hotel near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Aug. 21.
"I did push her and subsequently other things took place," he said after court. "I apologized to her for that. No matter how much you feel you are right in a push, it's unjust according to the law."
Weeks was sentenced on the felony charge of aggravated assault as a first offender. He received three years' probation, 200 hours of non-church related community service and was ordered to attend anger-management counseling. If he successfully completes these conditions, the conviction will be expunged from his record.
"We are thankful that we were able to reach this resolution without a trial," Howard said. "[Weeks] made a public apology. We thought that was a big step."
A restraining order has separated Bynum and Weeks since the bishop was charged in the attack. But on Monday, soon after the couple saw each other at Bynum's deposition for the divorce proceedings, they fell into each other's arms.
"Probably for an hour they just held onto each other," said Ed Garland, Weeks' defense attorney. "It was a very dramatic moment."
Said Bynum: "I hadn't seen Bishop Weeks in a while; when I saw him it allowed me to reflect on the first time we got married. In situations like this, no one tells you what to do with the love that you feel for the person."
Howard said Bynum appealed to the court for leniency on her husband's behalf.
"I thought that was very courageous on her part," Howard said. "Many people in her situation would have been asking that he be put in jail."
Bynum said Weeks' grandfather called her and asked her to intervene. "When I received a phone call I was overwhelmed because I needed a reason to go the district attorney to ask for no jail time," Bynum said. "I don't believe my husband ... is a man that deserves to be put in jail."
When asked by Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford if she approved of the deal Weeks was offered, Bynum, who wore bright fuscia pink, nodded her head yes.
Weeks, clad in a bow tie and a gray suit, looked back at his wife and offered this apology: "I want to apologize to my wife for all actions you had to go through," Weeks said. "I know it has been difficult. I appreciate you and I thank you."
Weeks said he learned a lesson from this ordeal. He urged men facing similar conflicts with their spouses to "walk away, still walk away."
The couple did not rule out a reconciliation in the future: "God is in control of all things," Weeks said.
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