Good name at stake in trial

A pastor faces a parishioner's salacious allegations.

By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
Published October 24, 2007

Pastor Ronald Smart listens to his attorney prior to opening arguments in his battery trial at the West Pasco Judicial Center in New Port Richey Tuesday morning.
	[Stephen J. Coddington | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Stephen J. Coddington | Times] County Judge Candy VanDercar, right, listens to defense attorney Christopher Frey, left, and Assistant State Attorney Neil O'Brien, during a bench conference in the misdemeanor battery trial of Pastor Ronald Smart.

NEW PORT RICHEY -- They are allegations that could bring ruin to a man of God.

Last summer a male parishioner said he awoke to find his Baptist minister had partially undressed him, straddled his naked lap and kissed him on the chest.

The parishioner went to the Sheriff's Office. Detectives had him confront Ronald Smart over the phone -- a recording that was played for the jury Tuesday at the pastor's trial for misdemeanor battery.

"Why did you even do this to me?" the parishioner said.

The leader of Union Missionary Baptist Church offered nothing save calm words.

"If you want to sit down and talk I will, but for me I have to move on, man," Smart said. "I just have to move on. ... I prayed about things, about you, about my family and friends, I prayed over things. I have to move on."

"Did you think it was right to just touch me like that?" the parishioner said. "Does (the pastor's wife) Cheryl know about this?"

"Whatever transpired, if I had an accommodation with you or shared something with you," Smart said, "those things I shared with someone as an equal. ..."

* * *

Misdemeanor battery is unlawful touching between two adults. Legally, the consequences for Smart could be minor. He has no prior record, so jail may be unlikely. He could get probation.

But there is far more at stake for Smart, 48. He is respected in the community, a family man, a successful executive at Nielsen Media Research.

If the salacious allegations against him were to be substantiated by a jury of his peers, it could devastate his reputation -- and his career as a pastor.

The allegations were first made in June 2006, and Smart was charged that November. Since then the congregation at Union Missionary Baptist has waited for the legal system to make a decision, said church official George Johnson, before they make one of their own.

* * *

Smart's accuser is a family man, too. Now 37, a former Navy submariner, he was new to Pasco County when he first attended Union Missionary Baptist last summer and met the pastor.

His identity is being withheld by the St. Petersburg Times because of the nature of the allegations.

He told the jury that he worked an overnight shift at a hospital, then joined the church men for a June 10, 2006, fishing charter.

He said the pastor wouldn't give him directions. Smart insisted on driving him -- and on the return trip, Smart stopped by his own Trinity home first. There, he said, the pastor asked for a hug.

The parishioner agreed, "but I had to push him off," he said.

They sat and talked. The parishioner said he must have blacked out from exhaustion. He awoke, he said, and the pastor was on top of him.

"I couldn't do anything," he said. "The first thing that came to mind from my military training was to snap his neck.

"And then I started praying. I said 'Lord you're going to have to help me get out of this situation.'

"And that's when the doorbell rang."

At the door were neighborhood teens telling the pastor his convertible top was down and rain was coming.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," the parishioner said the pastor told him. "I took this too far."

* * *

Then it was defense attorney Christopher Frey's turn. He and the accuser sparred for two hours.

"It is correct that you did nothing to physically remove Pastor Smart?" the lawyer asked.

"Yes," the parishioner said.

"And you say that's because you were in shock?" Frey asked.

"Yes," he said.

"And when he hugged you," the lawyer said, "you said you felt uncomfortable and pushed him off, correct?"

The defense portrayed the accuser as a struggling man trying to shake down a wealthier man. Smart owns a $300,000 home, a Jaguar and a Porsche. While the accuser has poor credit and talked to a civil attorney about this case.

"It's like I'm on trial," he said.

* * *

Then Smart took the stand. His wife, Cheryl, had been jotting in a notebook all day. For the first time, she raised her head.

He denied the allegations, he told jurors, and did so in an earlier phone call from his accuser that wasn't recorded -- when he said the accuser blackmailed him.

"If I did not co-sign for a car loan, he was going to tell authorities that I inappropriately touched him," Smart said. "My reaction was, you know this was not true and I'm not going to co-sign a loan for you."

The pastor said he spoke calmly in the next, recorded call, to keep his accuser calm -- and because that's what pastors do.

"My whole history has been to counsel," Smart said. "I know that in past conversations with him, and others, that confrontation is not the way to go."

Assistant State Attorney Neil O'Brien didn't buy it.

"What it sounds like is there's an educated person on the other end of this call," the prosecutor said, "making sure he's covering his own rear end."

The jury will deliberate today.

Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6236.

[Last modified October 23, 2007, 21:44:48]