Fire-and-brimstone televangelist Jimmy Swaggart has a November date with a desert town judge to answer to three traffic tickets he received while driving with a woman who says she's a prostitute.
Meanwhile, the news media descended on the parched Mojave Desert community of Indio searching for juicy details of Swaggart's latest indiscretion Friday morning."The chief (Jerry Graves) is going to come in at 10 to talk to `Hard Copy,' Sgt. David Patino said. "I can't believe the calls I'm getting. London, New York, all over."
Patino said the media's interest was triggered by calls to several news outlets made by Rosemary Garcia, the woman who was in Swaggart's car. Police have declined to disclose Garcia's criminal record, although Patino would say "we know her."
Garcia, however, told reporters that she is a prostitute and that Swaggart picked her up for sex.
"It's the same guy who cries on TV . . . to get people to give him all this money, and for what? So he can give it to us," Garcia said.
Swaggart, 56, resigned over a $150 million-a-year religious empire until he tearfully confessed in February 1988 to a "moral sin" because photos showed him consorting with a prostitute.
When he returned to the pulpit several months later after church punishment, Swaggart told his congregation that the Lord had forgiven him for his sins and "what's passed is passed."
Police stopped the 1989 Jaguar Swaggart was driving about 9 a.m. Friday in an area near Interstate 10 that has been targeted in the past for narcotics and prostitution activity. Officers noticed the car because it had crossed the center line and was traveling on the wrong side of the road, police said.
After stopping Swaggart and determining that he was not drunk, officers cited him for failure to drive on the right half of the roadway, failure to wear his seat belt and failure to register his car. He was ordered to appear in Indio Municipal Court Nov. 15.
Patino said Swaggart was not cited on prostitution charges because officers did not have information that any illicit activity occurred.
"You can have anyone you want in your car," Patino said.