Bishop Eddie L. Long did nothing wrong this week, yet the scorching spotlight is being directed back to him. A pastor in Las Vegas was arrested after he was accused of using scripture to lure two teenage boys into inappropriate sexual activities.
This latest accusation comes in the same week that a former female employee filed a lawsuit against New Birth Missionary Baptist Church accusing a male supervisor of sexual harassment for showing her a cell phone picture of a penis. Bishop Long was not named as a defendant.
Billy Eckstine McCurdy, 57, was arrested and charged with 11 sexual abuse charges against two teen boys he invited to live with him. This latest incident comes five years after a similar case against him was dropped.
The new charges involve two teen boys who said McCurdy forced them into sexual relationships with him. They told police he used his position in the church and Bible scriptures to force them into sex acts, authorities said. The boys testified at a grand jury, which indicted McCurdy on Thursday on six counts of sexual assault and five counts of open or gross lewdness. He was being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail.
Detectives believe there are other victims who have not come forward as of yet.
McCurdy spent a lot of time with young people, including sleepovers and youth trips to Arizona and California, police said. He also held events with young men at his home.
In the 2005 case, North Las Vegas police arrested McCurdy after a boy told investigators the pastor tried to fondle him while they slept in the same bed. The teen told police he and other high schoolers were at McCurdy’s house for a swim and slumber party. After swimming the children split up and went to bed.
The teen was planning to sleep on the floor in McCurdy’s bedroom, but the pastor invited him into his bed. The boy woke up a couple of hours later when he felt McCurdy put the boy’s hand on McCurdy’s genitals, according to police. McCurdy then moved his hand toward the boy’s pants, but the boy left and walked to a relative’s house.
Many of McCurdy’s flock publicly stood behind him, though he was suspended from the church after the arrest. The district attorney’s office later declined to prosecute McCurdy, citing questions about evidence in the case.
