Ernie Ray Lester: Liar, fraud, phny Vietnam vet -- finally busted -- but the biblethumpers still love him
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names
you gotta do is step up to the pulpit, thank Jesus for saving you from
a life of degradation, and pass the hat.
I like the part about how he was not welcomed home from Vietnam. Maybe
the fact that he graduated from high school three years AFTER the
Vietnam War ended had something to do with it.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/feb/24/biker-target-of-tbi-probe/?partner=popular
-- quote
Ernie Ray Lester says he made his peace with God.
Now he has the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to worry about.
"I didn't do anything but go to churches and sing and say some things
I shouldn't have," Lester said Tuesday. "It's a wonder God didn't just
strike me dead for going around and saying what I did. I've asked for
counseling. I've asked for help. I've told my mom I'm sorry. I've
asked forgiveness for the things I've done, and my father above has
forgiven me."
Lester, 52, spent the past few years visiting churches around East
Tennessee with his testimony of how he turned to God after a cold
welcome home from service in Vietnam and more than a decade collecting
drug debts for motorcycle gangs. He didn't tell those congregations
about a misdemeanor record, a bankruptcy or that he graduated high
school three years after the U.S. began pulling out of Vietnam.
TBI agents have begun looking into Lester's crusade, spokeswoman
Kristin Helm said Tuesday. The agency opened its probe into claims of
fraud last month at the request of William Paul Phillips, 8th Judicial
District attorney general, she said.
Lester's campaign came to light after a Union County couple said they
turned over $15,000 to help Lester start a bogus business, then found
themselves sued.
Their lawyer, Gregory P. Isaacs, filed a counter-lawsuit last week
claiming fraud. Lester dropped the case a day after the lawsuit made
the News Sentinel's front page.
"Our firm continues to receive information on a daily basis regarding
similar conduct that fits this same pattern," Isaacs said. "My clients
are pleased that this house of cards continues to topple, and I want
to reiterate their desire that this public scrutiny will protect other
innocent individuals."
Lester admits he lied about serving in Vietnam but said he told the
truth about killing at least half a dozen people as an outlaw biker.
He said that's his only wrong and claims visiting the churches - at
least 25-30 of them - wasn't his idea.
"I didn't take a dime," Lester said. "I'm not going to blame anybody.
I'm the liar. I did wrong. I know I did. But I was pushed and drug
into it, too. Somebody else keeps up with the money. I never touched
it."
Roy Karnes, a former president of the Christian Motorcyclists
Association, helped introduce Lester to some of those congregations.
He said Lester came to them.
"He's slick as a snake," Karnes said. "Nobody wrote anything for him.
Being a Christian, I believed him, until I found out the truth."
Lester said he hasn't talked with the TBI so far.
"All they have to do is call me and tell me where to go," he said. "If
I could, I'd take back every word I said and tell a different story."
-- end quote
Dai Uy
Lester confesses war tales weren't true
By Matt Lakin
PHOTO BY WWW.POWNETWORK.ORG
Ernest Ray Lester gives his testimony at a Union County church. Lester
is being sued by Rick and Suzanne Brabson who say Lester is a
“Christian con man” who took their money and then sued them.
Related:
Ernest Ray Lester, Jr. v. Pam Lester and Rick Branson answer and
counter complaint http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/2010/feb/021810scam.pdf
POWNetwork.org's page on Ernest Ray Lester, Jr.
http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies613.htm
Ernie Ray Lester gave up his legal battle Friday - the only real
battle he's ever fought.
Lester, 52, spent years wowing East Tennessee congregations with his
testimony of 23 war wounds in Vietnam, a murderous biker past and a
newfound mission as apostle to the outlaws. He dropped his lawsuit
Friday against Rick and Suzanne Brabson, a Union County couple who
opened their hearts and bank account, only to be sued.
Lester says he learned his lesson.
"I done it, and I knew better," he said. "I'm going to church, but if
I tell my testimony, it won't be that one."
The surrender came a day after a News Sentinel story on how the couple
bought Lester's scripture-laced stories of service and suffering, then
turned over $15,000 to support a mythical ministry and help start up a
landscaping business that never cut a single blade of grass.
"Although from time to time I represent the Ernie Lesters of the
world, it was a pleasure being on the right side of a tremendous wrong
today," said the Brabsons' lawyer, Gregory P. Isaacs. "Mr. Lester's
conduct not only damaged the Brabsons but was also hurtful to every
American veteran, especially all those who served in the Vietnam
conflict."
The agreement calls for Lester to surrender his claim to a motorcycle
and its trailer, taken by the couple last year as security for their
money. The total value roughly covers the couple's losses, Isaacs
said.
In return, the couple agreed to drop their counter-lawsuit against
Lester, filed Tuesday by Isaacs under the state Consumer Protection
Act. Lester also gave up his move for orders of protection against the
Brabsons.
"When confronted with the overwhelming results of our firm's
investigation, Mr. Lester agreed to drop all pending litigation,"
Isaacs said.
Lester said the attention, especially the newspaper story, humiliated
him.
"My mom's cried her eyes out," he said.
Lester - who graduated from Gibbs High School in 1976, a year after
the war ended - admitted he lied every time he took the pulpit and
told of secret raids behind enemy lines as a 17-year-old Marine
sergeant, of killing thousands of Vietnamese, of nearly two dozen war
wounds and of waiting for rescue as the sole survivor of an ambush.
"A bunch of that stuff was written down for me to say," he said.
Lester didn't say who wrote the script.
But he insists he told the truth about living as a biker assassin. He
claimed in a video shot in August at a church in Sparta, Tenn., that
he killed half a dozen people and survived being rammed at full speed
by a Lincoln Continental while collecting a drug debt in Houston in
1981, even though the impact "knocked my eyes out of my head and my
teeth out of my mouth" until they could be sewed back in by a biker
doctor.
"That was in Atlanta," he said Friday.
Lester told a similar story two years earlier when he met the Brabsons
at Revival Vision Church of God in Maynardville. He didn't mention a
misdemeanor arrest record, state court judgments, a federal tax lien
and a bankruptcy filing.
"Our firm has been inundated (since the lawsuit became public) with
phone calls and e-mails from law enforcement, attorneys and
individuals with information confirming Mr. Lester's dubious past,"
Isaacs said. "The Brabsons are pleased that they'll be able to recover
a portion of their money and are likewise pleased that at least for a
short time no other innocent individuals will fall prey to the
sensational falsehoods of a pathetic Christian quack."
Lester didn't say where he's attending church now.
Matt Lakin may be reached at 865-342-6306.
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redvet
god moves in mysterious ways?