David French details 2017 Pressler lawsuit over repeated rape
duane rollins filed a lawsuit in Harris County in 2017 alleging that Paul Pressler raped him repeatedly over decades. The case said the abuse was hidden or mishandled by prominent Southern Baptist figures and churches, putting pressler’s standing in the Southern Baptist Convention under new scrutiny.
Rollins had driven through Houston’s West Oaks neighborhood in 2016 before going to Pressler’s house, after his release from prison and a return to addiction. He described himself as Pressler’s “dear brother” and longtime assistant.
Paul Pressler in the SBC
Pressler was one of the architects of the Southern Baptist Convention’s conservative resurgence and helped push the denomination into a civil war in the 1980s and 1990s. He was known as “the Judge,” and for nearly four decades he served as a quiet GOP power broker while helping elevate conservative Christians to the Texas Legislature, Capitol Hill, and the White House.
That history gave the 2017 filing immediate weight inside a denomination described as the nation’s second-largest faith group. The lawsuit did more than accuse a single leader; it tied the claims to institutions and figures that, according to Rollins, had a role in concealing or mishandling the abuse.
Harris County Filing
The Harris County lawsuit named Pressler as the defendant and Rollins as the plaintiff. It said the abuse stretched across decades, making the filing a challenge not just to Pressler’s personal reputation but to the network around him.
For readers tracking the case, the most important point is the filing date itself: 2017. That is when Rollins put the allegations into court and forced the claims into the public record, where they could not remain only part of church or private circles.
Rollins and Pressler
Rollins’s route to Pressler’s house in 2016 shows how close the two men were before the lawsuit. He had been released from prison months earlier, fallen back into addiction, and still viewed Pressler through the language of “dear brother.”
The lawsuit turned that relationship into part of the evidence trail. Rollins’s account connected an intimate personal bond with allegations of repeated rape and a broader claim that powerful Southern Baptist figures and churches failed to handle abuse properly. For anyone following the case, the operative fact is that the allegations were not limited to one private accusation; they reached the denomination’s leadership culture and the people around Pressler.
