Bynum hasn’t met divorce terms, ex’s lawyer says

By D. AILEEN DODD

National evangelist Juanita Bynum was threatened with jail time or a fine Monday in a court document alleging that she failed to live up to the terms of her divorce settlement.

A lawyer for Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, Bynum’s ex-husband, said Bynum was in contempt of a divorce consent order in which she promised to pay her husband’s $40,000 attorney fees, relinquish the title of an SUV and pick up furniture of hers.

“She owed $10,000 on July 8,” said Randy Kessler, Atlanta lawyer for Weeks. “We gave her a month to bring it current. She hasn’t done that.”

Kessler said the $10,000 was to be the first of four installments toward the $40,000. He said Bynum also did not transfer the title of the couple’s 2004 Land Rover to Weeks or make arrangements to pick up her belongings, which include a harp, a sculpture of a woman and other sentimental antiques she collected seven years ago.

“We are going to ask the court to make her do it even if that mandates putting her in jail,” Kessler said.

Kessler said his firm filed the contempt motion Monday afternoon.

Bynum, who was not represented by an attorney at her divorce, could not be reached for comment Monday. Her publicist, Amy Malone, was unaware of the filing and had no comment.

Bynum and Weeks divorced on June 20 in Gwinnett County Superior Court, about a month shy of their sixth wedding anniversary.

The couple’s stormy relationship made national headlines last year when Weeks, the leader of Global Destiny Ministries faced criminal charges for pushing, kicking and beating Bynum in the parking lot of the Renaissance Concourse Hotel on Aug. 21. Weeks later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault as a first offender in the attack. He was sentenced to anger management counseling, community service