Bishop Earl Paulk turns himself in, is released

Bishop Earl Paulk, one of Atlanta’s pre-eminent religious figures through the 1980s and 1990s, turned himself into Cobb County jail on a perjury charge Tuesday evening.

He was booked in about 8 p.m. and then walked out on his own recognizance, said Nancy Bodiford, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office.

“He surrendered with his attorney,” she said. “The sheriff and the district attorney had come to an agreement to give him 48 hours to surrender.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued a warrant Monday. Paulk is charged with lying during a deposition in a sexual misconduct lawsuit.

Paulk said Mona Brewer, the woman suing him, was the only sexual partner he had outside of his marriage. Evidence later contradicted that statement.

The deposition in the case was taken in Cobb County, which is why the warrant was issued there.

Paulk’s criminal attorney did not return calls.

The perjury investigation began last summer after a DNA test showed Paulk fathered a son with the wife of his brother, the Rev. Don Paulk.

That child, D.E. Paulk, now pastors the Cathedral at Chapel Hill in Decatur, the church in which Bishop Paulk built his reputation.

Brandi Paulk, D.E. Paulk’s wife and a minister at the church, said the family had no comment on the arrest.

“We were caught off guard” by the warrant, she said.

“The news knew about it before our attorneys did. We are still in the process of sorting it out,” she said.

Bishop Paulk built an interracial megachurch and a TV ministry in Decatur that attracted national attention and more than 10,000 members. He also started an association of independent charismatic churches that had member churches across the nation.

His career has been plagued with rumors and charges of sexual indiscretions.

Mona and Bobby Brewer, former staff members at the church, sued Bishop Paulk in 2005. They dropped the suit last year for legal strategic reasons, and each filed a new suit against him and the church weeks later.

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