A Queens clergyman had an unholy reaction to a member of his flock, accusing her of trying to seduce him and slamming her as “disgusting” and “stupid,” according to a lawsuit.
Juanita Faulkner claims her time at Episcopal Church of Grace and Resurrection became a living hell in 2018, when Rev. Gilberto Hinds began haranguing her.
“You are the most disgusting person that I have ever met,” Hinds allegedly told Faulkner, in front of others.
At another point, the interim priest at the Elmhurst church allegedly told her, “I have developed an aversion towards you” and “Whenever you and I are in the same room, I feel a desperate need to move to the other end,” she claims in a Queens Supreme Court lawsuit against Hinds and the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, which oversees the church.
He accused her of staring at him during service, looking “so stupid” during Communion, and told her, “Don’t touch me, don’t smile at me and I do not want to be hugged by your big arms,” she charges in the litigation.
Hinds also said Faulkner exposed herself to him in his office and refused six requests for the choir member to sing at family funerals, she said.
He expelled her from the church in February 2020, said Faulkner, who wants $2 million in damages for the “embarrassment,” emotional distress and “financial losses.”