June 28, 2007

Witness: “He’s the real deal, as far as his relationship with God.“

Before Fuller recessed for lunch, the court took a brief time out of hearing from Siegelman’s legal team to call on the first of Scrushy’s seven character witnesses.

A woman named Brenda Lovelady Spahn took the stand. Spahn runs The Lovelady Center, a Birmingham-ministry that reaches out to women who have fallen on bad times and helps integrate them back into society. Spahn said she met Scrushy “about a year ago,” when a friend brought him by the center. She said Scrushy preaches regularly at the center and sometimes will stay after for hours, praying and talking to the women with “nothing to gain.” Spahn said that it’s not mandatory that the women at the center attend Scrushy’s sermons, but that they show up anyway. About a handful of women from the center were present at today’s proceedings.

“He’s the real deal, as far as his relationship with God,” Spahn said.

Spahn also said that Scrushy has donated around $75,000 to the center, and then was careful to correct herself and said that Scrushy’s charity had donated the money.

The prosecution gave Spahn the briefest of cross examinations. She was only asked how long she had been a minister (two years) and how long she’d known Scrushy (one year).