Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Whitehead files $20 million lawsuit against critics on social media
A jewelry-loving Brooklyn bishop delivered a message to a pair of vocal critics: Bling it on.
Religious leader Lamor Whitehead, in separate Brooklyn lawsuits, accused two men of smearing his name in social media comments describing the flashy bishop as a drug dealer and a scammer.
The twin court filings by the Rolls-Royce-driving cleric seek $20 million each from defendants DeMario Q. Jives and Larry Reid.
“As a result of (the defendants’) conduct, Plaintiff lost business deals, church members and income,” read the bishop’s court filings. “(Defendants) are liable to Plaintiff for defamation, libel per se and slander per se.”
Jives specifically claimed on his YouTube channel last month that a videotaped armed robbery where Whitehead lost an estimated $400,000 in jewelry while preaching from the pulpit was not what it appeared.
The bishop “is wearing the same jewelry that (he) got robbed in,” the court papers charged Jives with saying on his YouTube channel. “This n---a is out here drug dealing.”
Reid was accused in court documents of making online accusations that Miller-Whitehead “scammed people out of money” and “will be locked up in about three months.”
Emails to both defendants for comment on the legal action were not immediately returned Tuesday. The masked robbers targeted Whitehead and his wife on July 24 inside the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministry in Brooklyn before fleeing in a white Mercedes-Benz, police said.
Whitehead had earlier made headlines with his attempt to orchestrate the surrender of a suspect in the fatal shooting of a man on subway.
