The schadenfreude was flying hot and heavy at the monthly meeting of a group of black professionals I belong to last Saturday when, as the meeting was coming to a close, I proposed that the assembled body observe a moment of silence for “Pastor” Darrell Scott, the con man preacher who scams decent, hard-working folks out of their money at his New Spirit Revival Center on Mayfield Road. The laughter was uproarious and sustained.
Scott, who early on glommed onto the candidacy of another con man, Donald Trump, is being sued by the owner of a $1.7 million home in Solon where he and his wife lived the high life for six years in an unusual week-to-week payment arrangement. The rent-to-own deal allegedly called for the Scotts to pay $2,500 per week to live in the luxurious 14,000 sq. ft. home that featured a spiral grand staircase and a 500 sq. ft. master bedroom. To get a sense of just how big the bedroom is, five Rolls-Royces — the brand of auto allegedly favored by the Scotts (or is it a Bentley they drive?) — can fit into it with space to spare.
Of course “Pastor” Scott, taking a page from the playbook of his road dog Donald, called the lawsuit “fake” — in spite of the fact the owner of the house has a signed lease agreement in his possession. The gentleman said that the Scotts bounced when he was about to evict them for non-payment of rent.
Darrell Scott supposedly texted the homeowner, stating that his income from the church daycare was “way down.” One has to wonder if the dip in attendance came right after he hosted Trump at his church last September? One can only hope so. His black flock needed to let him know that while they may be suckers, they are not complete fools.
But the larger question — at least for the IRS — may have to do with why Scott was paying his rent on Monday (the day which comes after Sunday, which of course is the day the collection plate is passed at his church) and was he paying it in cash, in small denomination bills?
Were this cluck and his wife so eager to “high side,” you know, to ostentatiously live above their means, that they failed to give Uncle Sam his cut of the money they seemingly were grifting? As any number of preacher/con men with tell you, Uncle Sam don’t play that shit, not even if you turn your collar around backwards and hurl fire and brimstone down from a pulpit on Sunday mornings.
When Trump hosted his black supporters at the White House for Black History Month (trust me, few of them will be invited back until February of next year), Scott, eager to have something to say — no matter how inane or untruthful it was — blurted out that he was just in Chicago and the members of the black street gangs loves the president so much that he was able to sit down with “the top gang thugs” on Trump’s behalf. When the gang leaders, the very next day, denied ever meeting with Scott, or even knowing him, the good reverend said that he made the outrageous statements due to sleep deprivation.
You can’t make this shit up, folks.
Still, Scott just might get the notoriety he seems to so desperately seek by being the first member of Trump’s team to do the perp walk. If The Donald doesn’t go visit Scott at Leavenworth, I’m sure he’ll at least send a card during Black History Month.
One thing the Scott duo can be sure of, virtually all of the black professionals in the group I belong to are rooting for them to fall flat on their asses, just to see if Trump will ride to their rescue. Stories like this make me believe there is a God after all, and She, like Uncle Sam, really don’t play that shit.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com