Eyewitnesses Say Bryan Loritts Covered Up Sex Crimes

Transcript

Did Bryan Loritts participate in a cover up of sex crimes at his former church? And given what he allegedly did, should he be hired by Summit Church—the megachurch where J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, pastors?

In this episode of The Roys Report, Julie interviews two eyewitnesses who had a front-row seat to a sex crimes case, involving Loritts’ brother-in-law and convicted voyeur, Rick Trotter. Loritts, who was just hired as an executive pastor at Greear’s church, says he had nothing to do with the mishandling of Trotter’s case. However, the eyewitnesses say Loritts participated in an extensive cover-up, which included destroying evidence, silencing victims and whistleblowers, and then allowing Trotter to repeat his crimes at another church.

This story has far reaching ramifications, given that Greear has pledged to make sweeping changes in the SBC, following a massive sex abuse scandal that has rocked the denomination.

Transcript

Note: This transcript has been edited slightly for continuity.

JULIE ROYS:  Did nationally recognized author and Pastor Bryan Loritts participate in a cover up of sex crimes at his former church? And given what he did should he be hired by Summit Church—the mega church where J.D. Greear, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention pastors? 

Welcome to The Roys Report, a podcast dedicated to reporting the truth and restoring the church. I’m Julie Roys. And today I’m going to be speaking with two eyewitnesses who had a front row seat to what happened at Bryan Loritts’ former church. One of them is a victim of Rick Trotter. Trotter was Bryan Loritts’ brother in law. And in 2010 Trotter was the worship pastor at Fellowship Memphis, the church where Loritts was the lead pastor. 

In February of 2010, someone found Trotter’s camera secretly recording people in the bathroom of the offices at Fellowship Memphis. One of my guests today is one of the women recorded on Trotter’s camera, a woman by the name of Jennifer Baker. My other guest is Greg Selby, a former insider at fellowship Memphis who said he witnessed the cover up of Trotter’s crimes. By the way, Trotter’s camera containing those recordings was given to Bryan Loritts the day it was discovered. Today, that camera is nowhere to be found. And Trotter’s crimes were not reported to police. At least Memphis Police say they no record of anyone ever reporting Trotter in 2010. And sadly, after Trotter was fired from Fellowship Memphis, he went to another church where he did the same exact thing. And it wasn’t until 2016—six years after the first recordings were found—that Trotter’s crimes were finally reported to authorities.

In a recent statement, Loritts says he gave Trotter’s camera to the elders of Fellowships Memphis the day after it was given to him. And he says the elders then removed him from the Trotter case. So Loritts is claiming he’s not culpable for what happened.  J.D. Greear and Summit Church say they believe Bryan Loritts’ version of events. And that’s why they’ve just hired Loritts as an executive pastor at Greear’s church.

But just a bit of context here. The Southern Baptist Convention that Greear heads is reeling from a major sex abuse scandal. And Greear, as the president of the SBC, has assured his denomination that he’s making major changes to insure that covering for sexual predators will not be tolerated. So if Loritts covered up sex crimes in 2010—and now is being hired by Summit—that’s a big deal.

And that’s exactly what my guests today say happened.

Well again, here to help shed light on this situation is Greg Selby. Greg was a part of the initial group of leaders that planted Fellowship Memphis. This is the church, again, where Rick Trotter was the worship pastor, where Bryan Loritts was a lead pastor.  And Greg had a front-row seat to what happened in 2010 with Rick Trotter. So, Greg, welcome! And thank you so much for being willing talk about this.

GREG SELBY:  Oh, than