NATION : Jim Treated Like Freak, Tammy Says

BUTNER, N.C. — A distraught Tammy Faye Bakker said she wanted the world to know that her husband, indicted television preacher Jim Bakker, was treated like a carnival freak when he was taken to a federal prison hospital here after his lawyers said he was hallucinating and unable to assist in his defense against fraud charges.

Tammy Bakker asked to meet with a reporter late Monday night. She said she was shocked when she arrived at Butner and discovered her husband was locked in a cell and forced to wear handcuffs to and from a private room where he meets with his family.

“They strip-searched him in front of a whole roomful of men,” she said. “As he was bending over to be strip-searched, they were counting his money.

“They wouldn’t put someone in prison who had an appendix attack. They wouldn’t put him in prison if he had the flu or a heart attack. But they threw Jim in prison when he had a breakdown. They didn’t help him by putting him in a cell.

“What (U.S. District) Judge (Robert) Potter has done to my husband is a disgrace. He was . . . treated like a freak at a carnival show.”