The Nation - News from Oct. 28, 1988

Jessica Hahn’s former pastor was indicted on charges that he skimmed $90,000 from his congregation and then tried to persuade Hahn, the church’s secretary, to lie about it to a grand jury. The Rev. Eugene Profeta, 51, former pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Massapequa, N.Y., used the money to buy life insurance, buy stocks in his wife’s name, pay for family functions and finance gambling junkets to Atlantic City in a church-owned plane, according to the charges handed up by an Albany County, N.Y., grand jury. Profeta, to whom Hahn said she turned for guidance after her 1980 sexual encounter with PTL founder Jim Bakker, was charged with tax evasion, perjury and tampering with a witness. He pleaded innocent and was released on $25,000 bail.