Dallas nigger homosexual says he was a teen when Pastor Rickie Rush raped him: 'I want him to remember, and know that I remember'

[hamilton]

As accusations mount, victim advocates question police
commitment to investigation. Rush has denied all allegations.

Donna Fields holds a photo of her son Marcus Bell Jr. Bell says
that when he was 13, he was raped by Inspiring Body of Christ
Church Pastor Rickie Rush. Fields and her sister say Rush also
sexually abused them starting when they were teenagers.(Ben
Torres / Special Contributor)

By Miles Moffeit and Sue Ambrose

6:00 AM on May 23, 2021 CDT

Note: This story contains depictions of sexual and physical
abuse that may be disturbing.

A former member of the Inspiring Body of Christ Church says he
was 13 when Pastor Rickie Rush raped him, an allegation Dallas
police say they are investigating.

Marcus Bell Jr., 26, described the assault in recent interviews
with The Dallas Morning News, saying it came after a week of
beatings by Rush in 2007 that left him bruised and barely able
to walk. At least six former members of the church told The News
that Rush often targeted him for whippings in the name of
discipline.

The News also recently obtained an affidavit that another former
IBOC member submitted to Dallas police two years ago, alleging
Rush touched her inappropriately around 2006.

Bell and the woman are among 12 former church members The News
has reported on since September who have alleged a range of
abuse by the evangelist when they were teens or younger. They
described beatings with wooden paddles, sometimes when they were
handcuffed or tied down, hazing, and sexual grooming that led to
assaults.

“Rush needs to be held accountable,” said Bell, who is serving
the final 16 months of a five-year prison sentence for robbery.
“He doesn’t need to be doing this to anybody else.”

Donna Fields, 47, wipes away tears while looking at a photo of
her son Marcus Bell Jr., when he was 12 years old. Bell says he
was raped by Pastor Rickie Rush when he was 13. Fields and her
sister also say Rush sexually assaulted them.(Ben Torres /
Special Contributor)
As accusations mount, victim advocates question whether police
have taken the investigation of Rush seriously enough, given his
longstanding access to children. No criminal charges have been
filed against him.

The alleged incidents date back three decades, to when Rush, 61,
founded the church, which sits on a 50-acre campus in southern
Dallas. At one point IBOC topped 10,000 members, and it has
housed a grade school and daycare center.

Through his attorneys Michael Heiskell and Renee Higganbotham-
Brooks, Rush continues to deny all allegations of abuse,
including those made by Bell, his family and other church
members in two earlier News reports.

“The rehash of these baseless allegations serves as a third
attempt by these individuals through The Dallas Morning News to
continue this smear campaign against him and IBOC,” according to
their statement.

“The IBOC community stands solidly behind Pastor Rush,” the
attorneys said.

Victim advocates have called for his resignation and held more
than a dozen demonstrations outside his church. Rush continues
to hold services.

Police have known about Bell’s rape accusation since October but
did not interview him, even by phone, until April. Police said
they had made a half-dozen efforts to visit Bell but prison
officials did not allow it due to the pandemic, along with other
issues.

Debra Bowles, director of the Women Called Moses Coalition and
Outreach, a crisis agency that serves predominantly women and
children of color who are victims of violence, said many in the
Black community worry that police have not devoted enough
attention to the investigation or publicly appealed to potential
victims too afraid to step forward.

“There’s already a concern out there that Black women aren’t
getting all the support they need from police,” Bowles said.
“And they fear the same here, that justice isn’t going to be
done.”

Bowles credited Bell for speaking out, saying he is “breaking
the silence for victims in the community.”

Dallas police Chief Eddie García, who took over the department
in February, told The News that he is reviewing the case and
wants to assure those who have any information about abuse
within the church that the department is serious about its
investigation.

“We want to support them. We want them to come forward. We need
them to come forward,” García said. “There’s no question about
it.”

‘Grooming’
Bell’s account of being beaten by Rush and a therapist’s
assessment of his lasting trauma were first described in a News
investigation in September.

The article also detailed allegations by Bell’s mother, Donna
Fields, and his aunt Renee Phillips that Rush sexually abused
them when they were teens in the 1990s. The sisters’ therapists
characterized Rush’s behavior leading up to the abuse, as
described by the women, as classic sexual grooming.

Donna Fields, holding a photo of son Marcus Bell Jr. when he was
12, stands outside Bessie Coleman Middle School in Cedar Hill,
which Bell was attending when he says Pastor Rickie Rush
sexually assaulted him in Rush’s office at Inspiring Body of
Christ Church. “Rush needs to be held accountable,” Bell says.
“He doesn’t need to be doing this to anybody else.”(Ben Torres /
Special Contributor)
Rush wielded extraordinary influence over the sisters as their
spiritual leader and high school drama teacher, according to the
women and their relatives. At the time, the sisters’ parents
were grappling with drug addiction and financial problems and
Rush sought to act as their savior, they said.

Phillips recognized Rush’s actions as abusive after her teen
years and left the church. It took Fields longer. Rush gave her
leadership roles in the church and showered her with money and
attention. She saw Rush as a protector and a father figure for
herself and her son.

Bell loved going to IBOC as a kid, he remembers. He idolized
Rush, and even called him “Papa.” The two watched professional
wrestling in Rush’s office. Bell often pretended to be a
minister, and Rush sometimes let him lead prayers from the
pulpit during services.

“He used to tell me, ‘Oh, you’re going to be the one that leads
this church someday,’” Bell recalled.

When Fields and her husband, Marcus Bell Sr., were breaking up
around 2007, the younger Bell began to act out at school. Rush
began to fixate on Bell for beatings, sometimes whipping him in
front of others with paddles, former church members told The
News.

Rush so frequently beat teens with paddles during group
activities that it became normalized, former members said. He
encouraged parents, often single mothers, to let him discipline
their children if they misbehaved.

In the fall of his seventh-grade year, Bell was suspended a week
for fighting. Fields allowed him to stay with Rush during the
day, believing he would put him to work and maybe give him a
swat or two.

But between cleaning horse stables at Rush’s home and odd jobs
around the church that week, Rush beat him several times, once
with a boat oar, Bell said.

During one assault, Rush criticized Bell’s dad for leaving the
church and being a bad parent, according to Bell. Rush would not
stop the lashes until Bell referred to Rush as his father, Bell
said.

The rape occurred that Friday, Bell said.

Rush had ordered him to do yard work at the church before a
men’s fellowship gathering. The pastor scolded Bell for not
picking up enough leaves and brought him back to his office.

Bell remembers Rush telling him to pull down his pants. Then the
pastor pulled out a paddle he had nicknamed “Lucille” and began
thrashing him, Bell said.

Weak from days of beatings, he fell to the floor.

Suddenly the paddling stopped and he felt Rush behind him, a
hand around his neck, he recalls. He could barely breathe.

Rush penetrated him with his penis, Bell said.

“I zoned out,” Bell said. “I just zoned out.”

Rush told him to go to the bathroom to clean up.

Bell caught a view of himself in the mirror. “I just looked at
the bruises from my back down to my bottom.”

Rush had more in store for him that evening, Bell said. During
the fellowship meeting, the pastor told the crowd he had to
punish Bell for his misbehavior at school. As another lesson,
Rush auctioned off Bell’s Fila tennis shoes that his dad had
bought for him earlier that week.

Before Bell left the church that evening, Rush told him not to
tell anyone what had happened, he said.

Pastor Rickie Rush spoke on a prison reform panel during Hope
Summit at Cedar Valley College in February 2020. (Juan Figueroa
/ The Dallas Morning News)
Bell’s father told The News he recalled asking his son where his
shoes were. Bell told him Rush had taken them.

Angry, Bell Sr. said he went into the church to see Rush, but a
group of ushers would not let him. According to Bell, Rush did
not touch him after that.

Bell Sr. said the rape account devastated him when his son
shared it with him recently. He also understands why his son
didn’t tell him years ago.

“He knew I’d be sitting in the penitentiary now instead of him,”
Bell Sr. said.

Fields said her biggest regret in life is letting Rush
discipline her son that week. With the help of therapy, she said
she now understands the profound psychological hold Rush had
over her and her family.

“He was grooming all of us,” she said. “He was grooming our
family.”

Inspiring Body of Christ Church sits on a 50-acre campus in
southern Dallas. At one point IBOC topped 10,000 members, and it
has housed a grade school and day care. (Smiley N. Pool / The
Dallas Morning News)
‘Scared and shocked’
Rush also tried to position himself as a father figure to Fields
and her sister before he sexually abused them, they said. In the
police affidavit recently obtained by The News, a third church
member described Rush using a similar approach.

The woman, who was pregnant at the time, asked not to be named
because she fears retaliation.

She said Rush made unwanted sexual advances toward her in his
church office around 2006.

“He began yelling at me, asking why my jeans were tight,” the
woman said in the affidavit.

Rush asked if she was trying to kill her baby, she said, and
told her to take off her belt and unzip her jeans.

“He then touched my private area,” she said in the affidavit. “I
automatically grabbed his hand and asked what he was doing. I
was scared and shocked.”

Rush told her to trust him because he was like a father to her,
she said.

He asked her to visit a week later; when she did, he
complimented her clothes and said she looked nice.

Rush asked her to follow him into his office bathroom, she said,
and as they faced a mirror, Rush stood behind her while grabbing
her stomach.

In another encounter, Rush pressed her to describe what kind of
sex she liked, according to her affidavit.

She quit the church.

‘Look me in the eyes’
Bell said he fell into despair in the years following the rape
and he attempted suicide. He was hospitalized for two weeks at
the former Timberlawn psychiatric hospital, according to his
mother. In 2017, Bell pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery for
demanding a cellphone at gunpoint, records show.

He received the lowest possible sentence, five years, after a
therapist interviewed him and his relatives. In a report
submitted to the court, the counselor pointed to a “history of
physical and emotional abuse by the pastor.”

Over the past year, Bell said, he has spent his time behind bars
turning inward, to confront his trauma and mistakes. When his
mother and aunt went public about their sexual abuse, it gave
him the courage to speak out for the first time, he said.
Experts say victims of sexual assault often stay silent for
years, even decades, before coming forward.

Bell sent a letter to a friend late last year divulging the
assault. His mother shared the note with police and The News in
October.

Bell now sees the abuse as the root of his aggression.

Marcus Bell Jr. (front) and his mother, Donna Fields (center),
in a photo from about 2003 with Pastor Rickie Rush and a friend.
Fields says Rush tried to position himself as a father figure to
her and her sister before he sexually abused them.(Courtesy of
Donna Fields)
He is not seeking early release because he wants to pay for his
crime and keep healing, he said. “Hate is not closure because
you always hold on to it,” he said. “Love is closure. I need to
get right for my family. I’m still working on myself. I want
others to learn from me.”

What would he say to Rush now?

“I probably would say nothing to him,’' Bell said. “I would just
see how long he could look me in the eyes. I want him to
remember, and know that I remember.”

In November, Bell’s attorney, Pat Lee, gave Rush 30 days to
enter mediation, or else Bell would sue the pastor. In response,
Rush’s attorneys said they would countersue. No suits have been
filed.

The pastor’s attorneys said they have “been in communication”
with Dallas police and offered to make Rush available for an
interview. Police declined to say whether they had questioned
him.

“Pastor Rush remains steadfast and firm in his denial of these
14 to 15 year old allegations,” his attorney said in a
statement, “and reiterates that they are completely, totally and
utterly false.”

Rush’s lawyer also sent The News a signed statement labeled
“affidavit” from Bell’s former stepfather, Bradley Cotton. The
document said Cotton believed Bell would have told him about any
assault at the time, but did not.

Cotton confirmed with The News that he made the comments. But he
said he never signed the statement. Rush’s attorney said he did.

Bell told The News that he was not close to his stepfather. Even
if he had been ready to talk about the assault at the time, Bell
would not have confided in him, he said.

Message to the public
Bell’s parents and his attorney said they are troubled that it
took police more than five months to interview Bell after
learning in October that he said Rush raped him.

On April 6, two detectives spoke to Bell for two hours at the
prison. Police took a sworn statement detailing his allegations,
according to Assistant Chief Reuben Ramirez.

Demonstrators, including Donna Fields (left), yelled toward
motorists entering the parking lot at Inspiring Body of Christ
Church before services last Oct. 4.(Smiley N. Pool / The Dallas
Morning News)
The delay added to years of the family’s frustrations over what
they saw as a lack of communication from the police.

Phillips, Bell’s aunt, gave her account to an investigator in
late 2017; his mother told her story to police in 2018. But the
sisters went nearly a year without an update from police, they
said.

After The News again sought information from police in 2019
about the investigation of Rush, a new detective informed Bell’s
mother and aunt that their cases were too old under the law to
prosecute, but that they were looking into Bell’s allegations
that Rush beat him.

Detectives did not pursue any discussions on the phone with
Bell, Lee said. Police must conduct interviews in person, one
officer told him.

Police also told The News that the type of physical contact
described by the woman who submitted her own affidavit in 2019,
and when it occurred, put it outside the statute of limitations.

Other alleged beatings of children, disclosed in an October News
story, also occurred too long ago to prosecute, according to
police.

The Rev. Peter Johnson, a civil rights leader and founder of the
Institute for Nonviolence in Dallas, sent a letter to former
police Chief U. Reneé Hall in November concerned there might be
other victims.

“The lack of public resources devoted to helping these victims
sends a message that the pain have suffered should be kept
quiet,” Johnson wrote.

Hall stepped down in December. Johnson said he has not heard
back from the police department.

Several victim advocates at Dallas-area crisis centers say they
are perplexed that police have not said more publicly about the
Rush investigation, given the growing number of accusers.

They had hoped former Chief Hall would ask the public for more
information.

Bowles said she is encouraged that Chief García has reassured
victims in his comments to The News.

“That’s something we haven’t had in a very long time and I feel
he’s going to try to do something about this — I believe this in
my heart,” she said.

García said in an interview last month that he and Ramirez are
aware that sexual assaults tied to churches are “grossly
underreported.’' And though police cannot share details, García
said they are working to get answers.

“We want to make sure that if there are victims that have not
reported that they feel safe in reporting,” García said. “That
is the sort of environment that we need to strive for.”

García also said he understands Bowles’ concerns that police
fall short when it comes to allegations of crimes in the Black
community.

“If we’re not being trauma-informed and we’re not talking to
victims and we’re not practicing procedural justice with our
victims, then that’s something that we certainly need to know so
that we can deal with that issue,” he said.

Still, dozens of former IBOC members have told The News they
worry Rush will never face accountability in the court system,
because of his prominence in the community.

“People have been saying the same thing for years and years,
that Rush won’t ever face consequences,” said Bell Sr. “Who’s
going to step up?”

Abuse hotlines:
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services hotline: 1-
800-252-5400

Women Called Moses nonprofit and shelter for victims of family
violence: wcmcares.org: (214) 432-3017

Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center hotline: (972) 641-7273

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2021/05/23/dallas-
man-says-he-was-a-teen-when-pastor-rickie-rush-raped-him-i-want-
him-to-remember-and-know-that-i-remember/