Much of the news coverage of the arrest focused on the uncorroborated sexual allegations made by Lisa, none of which the priest was ever charged with. ABC Action News covered the story on two consecutive evenings and included an exclusive interview with the informant. One headline on their website reads: “I-Team Exclusive: Bishop accused of sex acts involving prostitutes, communion cup.”
Throughout the ordeal, Leigh has maintained his innocence and has taken to the church’s website, apostoliccatholicchurch.com, to tell his side of the story. “These police actions are not about law enforcement,” he writes. “They are a form of political suppression. It is very dangerous to be a voice for the poor in Tampa … The real news story in my arrest is the abuse of power by the police and the media’s wholehearted collaboration in that abuse.”
This is not the first time Bishop Leigh has had a brush with the law. In 1987, he was arrested for mail fraud involving falsified documentation for mortgages. He says he was trying to protect poor people who were being taken advantage of by the financial system. “I wanted to keep them in their homes for as long as possible because what was happening to them was unethical.” He served five years in prison as a result despite the support of numerous clergy and amnesty groups from around the world including Mother Theresa and Amnesty International, who wrote dozens of letters asking for his pardon.
Tampa Police spokesperson Laura McElroy condemns the notion that the city is out to get Bishop Leigh. “That’s ridiculous,” she said. “We work with numerous good faith-based organizations and programs that help the poor and homeless in the area.” McElroy initially told CL that the television crew “just happened to be there” during the raid of Leigh’s church. After being told of information in the arrest report alluding to the fact that ABC Action News had been tipped off by police and a news story posted on the ABC News website showing law enforcement planning the raid on the church, she called back to amend her comment. “The news media was invited along for the raid,” she explained, “but we did not tip them off.”
This sort of contradiction doesn’t sit well with some in the faith community. Reverend Russell Meyer, executive director of the Florida Council of Churches, suspects there is more going on than meets the eye with the made-for-media police raid. “There is a real attempt to silence Bishop Leigh,” he says. “The picture painted by the local media is not only a fabrication and an insult, it’s an attack on the Church and its relationship with the poor.”
Meyer is one of several following the case who have floated the theory that activists like Bishop Leigh are standing in the way of the city’s gentrification plans for Sulphur Springs and have thus become targets. Citing Mayor Buckhorn’s Nehemiah Project to demolish houses considered havens for drug dealers and prostitutes and the city’s aggressive code enforcement and plans to “repopulate” the neighborhood, some see the work of Leigh’s Apostolic Catholic Church as antithetical to the administration’s vision. Leigh, Meyer and others also assert that police compensated the informant Lisa for her part in the investigation and helped her relocate to another state. Police deny the charge.
Reverend Bruce Wright of Refuge Ministries in St. Petersburg was ordained by Bishop Leigh and has known him for several years. He’s no fan of the police. “The police oppress the poor, and people like Chuck stand up for the poor plain and simple,” he says. “If any of the allegations were true, he would have been charged.”
Adding fuel to the speculation of entrapment, Leigh says he has been approached since his arrest by either informants or undercover agents of the police. On Sept. 18, a woman known as Tracy approached him at his church and asked him for a “date” so she could pay her phone bill. “You’d really be helping me out a lot,” Leigh claims she said. “It would be our secret.” Leigh says he gave her his stock response and she left, walking north over the Hillsborough River bridge. Curious, Leigh followed from a distance and saw her walk toward two Tampa police cars and a waiting ABC Action News van. She leaned into the open police window and spoke to the police.
