Gospel Icon Donnie McClurkin Sued For Sexual Abuse By Former Assistant

Pastor Donnie McClurkin is a renowned, Grammy-winning gospel artist and one of the most popular preachers of his era. He is also, according to a lawsuit filed this week, allegedly a sexual predator.

McClurkin’s former assistant, Giuseppe Corletto, says that the pastor abused him over a period of time that he worked as his assistant, which included traveling with him. Corletto was introduced to McClurkin at a church service in 2003 and became his assistant a year later. He says that McClurkin started molesting him during “pray away the gay” sessions, where both men, according to Corletto, tried to “free themselves” of homosexuality.

Those sessions allegedly escalated into full sexual contact from 2007- 2015 in several states, including California, New York and New Jersey. Corletto says he was being raped on one of those trips despite McClurkin bringing his then-girlfriend along.

Corletto started working with McClurkin when he was 21 and a new member of McClurkin’s Perfecting Faith Church in Long Island, New York. Though Corletto quit working as McClurkin’s personal assistant in 2008, the abuse continued. After he says he was assaulted in 2013, during a trip to Niagara Falls, Corletto received an email from McClurkin, who apologized for his actions.

“I am the actual epitome of a desperate dirty ‘old man’,” McClurkin wrote, according to the lawsuit, which includes a picture of the alleged email conversation, “pawning and groping a young man who is just looking for a friendship and close plutonic [sic] relationship with someone he wants looks to for help, guidance and spirituality.”

“I feel so foul…so stupid,” McClurkin added. “I know I apologized for my wrong attitude from wednesday….but I want to apologize for all of my behavior that has been wrong and put you in a wrong place. I have no one…and i feel it more than ever…but I was horribly wrong trying to force you into something that you were consistently saying no to. I am too old to be like this.”

Corletto says he found the email last year and that he was “relieved” once he saw it.

“I didn’t make this up. I wasn’t crazy,” Corletto told NBC News in an interview. “I felt vindicated in some ways. … He’s literally admitting to his guilt.”

Corletto filed the lawsuit under New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. In 2022, it extended the statute of limitations for alleged sexual assault victims to sue, but it ended last March. However, under certain circumstances, plaintiffs can still file lawsuits.

McClurkin is a pillar in the gospel music and Black church community, winning three Grammys and 10 Stellar Awards along the way. He said he has “overcome” homosexuality, which he believes was triggered by being raped by two male relatives as a child.

His lawyers deny the allegations.

“At no time did Pastor McClurkin engage in any form of sexual abuse, assault, or sexual coercion of Mr. Corletto,” Greg Lisi, an attorney for McClurkin, said in a statement provided to NBC. “The claims set forth in the lawsuit grossly mischaracterize their interactions, which occurred over a decade, and some accusations over 2 decades, ago. All these allegations are contradicted by the real facts.”

See social media’s reaction to the allegations below.