A Pennsylvania pastor insists he was merely counseling a naked man whom cops found bound with nylon rope in a parked car on a residential street, saying, “I have nothing to hide.”
George Nelson Gregory, 61, was sitting in the back seat of a car parked outside a house in Homestead when cops — responding to a call about a suspicious vehicle — spotted a naked man bound with nylon rope in the front seat around 11:30 p.m. Friday, KDKA reported.
A witness told police the naked man got out of the car in full view of his daughter’s window.
Gregory told the officers that he and the unidentified man were “just playing” in a consensual setting, adding that they “meet up from time to time to play with each other,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by the station.
And despite being inside a car on a well-lit public street, Gregory believed they were in a private setting, cops said.
Gregory, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, still disputed what cops said about the bizarre ordeal, telling a KDKA reporter he has “nothing to hide.”
“I did nothing wrong,” Gregory told the station, adding that he and the man were approached by police because the officer thought somebody in the car was unconscious.
“I was counseling a young man with a drug problem,” Gregory told the station. “It did turn strange, but it wasn’t my doing, OK? And I was adamant that I’m participating in that way. And so that’s when the police pulled up, and they assume things, but I’m standing by my story. It’s not true.”
Gregory said he and his wife have been trying to help the man for years.
“I won’t deny that he began to take his clothes off and propositioned me, but I will deny, on a stack of Bibles with God as my witness, that I did nothing,” Gregory told KDKA.
Gregory and the unidentified man will receive a summons for open lewdness and indecent exposure, accusations the pastor disputes, since it wasn’t he who was naked at the time, he said.
“There’s no reason for me to be charged with open lewdness,” he said.
Gregory serves as a preacher at the Waterfront Christian Community Church in West Homestead, according to its website.
“If you have ever heard him preach or teach, you will agree that he is definitely using the gifts God gave him,” Gregory’s bio on the website reads. “George has a way of presenting messages from God’s word, the Bible, in such a way that you walk away saying, ‘now it makes sense.’ He speaks with clarity and conviction. There is no doubt that George believes and lives what he preaches.”