In what may be the first “truth-in-hiring” case of its kind, a former employee of a televangelist has sued Rev. Marcus Lamb for inducing her to work for him under the false pretense that he conformed to “the highest standards of Christian behavior.”

Marcus and Joni Lamb discuss his infidelity on their "Celebration" show

Jeannette Hawkins alleges she accepted the job of director of marketing for Lamb's Daystar Television Network in the belief that it was a “moral” place to work. She has “experienced severe emotional trauma” since learning in 2007 that Lamb was, in fact, having an extramarital affair with top aide Janice Smith at the time he and Smith interviewed her for the position.

“With the intent to induce Plaintiff to accept employment with Daystar, and to continue her employment there,” Hawkins says in her complaint, Lamb and Smith “misrepresented how Daystar was being managed and they failed to disclose that the two persons to whom she would report were engaged in an ongoing, longstanding, illicit sexual relationship.”

Hawkins resigned in 2008 but only filed her lawsuit Dec. 2 — two days after Lamb confessed on his “Celebration” show that he had been unfaithful to his wife and co-host Joni. On Dec. 3, he sued Hawkins and two other former employees for conspiracy to commit extortion.

Courts have allowed “truth-in-hiring” fraud claims when the employer misrepresents “current or historical fact” to a job applicant, for example by making misleading assertions about the financial strength and economic stability of the employer's enterprise.

Hawkins is taking the law a step further by alleging fraud based on misrepresentations about Daystar's “moral climate.” But she may not be able to show that she reasonably relied on what Lamb told her at her job interview.

“Hawkins claims she was fraudulently induced to work at Daystar,” Lamb says in his extortion complaint. “No such claim exists.”

The folksy, goateed Lamb, who has been preaching since he was 15, is the founder of the Word of God Fellowship in Dallas and launched Daystar as his televangelism outlet in 1998. On the “Celebration” show, he and his wife come across as a more glamorous version of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.

According to Hawkins, she “was and is a Christian” and, before accepting the job at Daystar, it was “very important” to her “to determine the moral integrity of the organization and especially the individuals under whose authority she would be placing herself.”

“Indeed, in an employment brochure,” she says,

Daystar encouraged job applicants to do just that, quoting 1 Thessalonians 5:12, “And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you.”

In her job interview, she accordingly asked Lamb and Smith, the vice president of marketing, “about the moral standards with which Daystar was managed and the moral climate of the workplace there.” Both of them responded that it “was operated in conformity to the highest standards of Christian behavior, making specific reference to chastity, modesty and purity.”

At the time they made these representations, the suit says, Lamb and Smith “were themselves in the midst of an illicit sexual affair.” They had an “affirmative duty” to disclose the affair to Hawkins since they had “voluntarily disclosed information to her information about the standards of conduct to which employees of Daystar were expected to conform.”

The Texas Court of Appeals has found that a failure to disclose information may be fraudulent when there are circumstances which would “impose a duty to speak.” Stephanz v. Laird, 846 S.W.2d 895 (1993).

But while it may be reasonable for a prospective employee to rely on an employer's assertions of economic viability, the same can hardly be said of assurances of "Christian behavior." Hawkins obviously didn't take the standards at Daystar for granted — and she had to be aware of the sex scandals involving televangelists from Bakker to Jimmy Swaggart and Ted Haggard.

Her case could also open up a Pandora's box for employers who vouch for moral standards during a hiring interview. What if the boss turns out to have a liking for pornography or a drug addiction? Would that make him liable for fraudulent inducement?

Daystar claims to be “one of the two largest Christian television networks in the world.” In his suit, Lamb says Hawkins conspired with former coworkers Karen Thompson and Jennifer Falcon to extort $7.5 million from him in return for not making his affair public.

By Matthew Heller
12/16/10