TBN Accused of Covering Up Sexual Assault

The granddaughter of the founder of TBN says she was drugged and raped by an employee of the broadcasting network when she was just 13 years old. Carra Crouch, now 19, is suing the Trinity Broadcasting Network in a Southern California court, though the alleged attack took place in Atlanta during an April 2006 telethon. In the lawsuit, she claims TBN founder Paul Crouch hushed up the crime to avoid bad publicity and Jan Crouch, her grandmother, told Carra Crouch that the attack was her own fault. Although the alleged attacker, Stephen L. Smith, was fired the next day, TBN denies the accusations, saying the organization is "stunned to learn of the allegations now being made by Ms. Carra Crouch, coming more than six years after her initial report."