LITTLE ROCK -- Televangelist Jim Bakker is being sued by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who alleges the convicted fraudster is peddling colloidal silver products on the false pretense they can cure people of covid-19.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Rutledge in Pulaski County Circuit Court. The defendants in the lawsuit are Bakker, Morningside Church Productions, The Jim Bakker Show and Sherrill Sellman, a holistic doctor who has appeared on Bakker's program to tout the products.
"Jim Bakker has exploited Arkansas consumers by leveraging covid-19 fears to sell [more than] $60,000 worth of their products that do nothing to fight the virus," Rutledge stated in a news release.
Tuesday's lawsuit was lodged 11 days after Bakker filed a lawsuit of his own against Rutledge and three public attorneys in California. That lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Missouri, alleges that Rutledge and the other plaintiffs had violated Bakker's congregants' religious freedom when they sought to obtain personal information in a consumer-protection investigation.
On the same day Rutledge's office filed the lawsuit in Pulaski County, it also filed a motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit.
Jay Nixon, former Missouri governor and attorney for Bakker, released a statement late Tuesday, again alleging Bakker's congregant's constitutional rights were at stake.
"The Arkansas Attorney General's lawsuit is obviously in direct response to our prior suit seeking to protect the names, addresses and contribution histories of church members," Nixon wrote. "Through our lawsuit filed last week in federal court, we took necessary steps to protect our clients' constitutional rights and the rights of its congregation. [Rutledge's] filing today confirms that our action to prevent this type of retaliation was warranted. The Constitution, federal statutes and prior cases clearly provide protection from this intrusion."
Rutledge insisted her lawsuit is not an infringement on anyone's constitutional rights, but an action to protect consumers against dangerous misinformation.
"Let me be clear, this case is not about freedom of religion," Rutledge stated. "This is a consumer fraud case and I urge any Arkansans who have experience with these false advertisements claiming silver to be a covid-19 cure to immediately call my office."
Rutledge's office said that roughly 385 Arkansas residents purchased colloidal silver products from Bakker's company between Jan. 1 and March 9. Those purchases totaled more than $60,500, Rutledge said. The lawsuit states that the defendants violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Morningside Church, which produces Bakker's show, is based in Blue Eye, Mo., just north of the Arkansas-Missouri border.
The lawsuit states that Bakker, on his show, promoted the sales of colloidal silver products -- including Silver Solution, Silver Sol and Optivida Silver Solution -- claiming they were effective methods of preventing and treating covid-19 and other illnesses. Colloidal silver is a product often sold on the internet as a dietary supplement.
Sellman is quoted as saying of colloidal silver during a Feb. 12 broadcast that the product was a "staple" defense against a pandemic.
"All I can say is that it has been proven by the government that it has the ability to kill every pathogen it has ever been tested on," she said on air, according to the lawsuit.
She also said the solution has been tested on "other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours."
The lawsuit goes on to quote an executive with the Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges, who alleged that Sellman has never met the educational standards set forth by the organization and is "neither a graduate of an accredited naturopathic medical program nor has [she] obtained a doctoral-level degree from a program recognized by the U.S. Department of Education."
Rutledge, in Tuesday's court filing, is asking the court to require that the defendants pay restitution to those Arkansas consumers and impose civil penalties of $10,000 per violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
In his statement, Nixon went on to add that Bakker "never said Silver Solution prevented or cured" covid-19 and that Silver Solution and other supplements sold by his church are also "commonly sold" at major retailers, such as Walmart, GNC, CVS and Amazon.
Bakker became nationally known in the 1970s and '80s while hosting, along with his then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker, The PTL Club, a Christian television program. In 1987, he resigned after a sex scandal and a couple of years later was convicted on several counts of wire and mail fraud.
Jim Bakker returned to televangelism less than a decade after his release from federal prison in 1994.