JAMAL PARRIS PLEADS GUILTY

J amal Parris, one of the young men who accused Bishop Eddie Long of sexual abuse will serve a year of probation on a drug charge. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute marijuana in a Miami courtroom Tuesday morning. “Do not come back before me on a probation violation,” Judge Bronwyn Miller told Jamal Parris. A trooper found drugs and a gun inside Jamal Parris’s white BMW, during a traffic stop near Miami Beach in June. Prosecutors dismissed the gun charge.

Jamal told reporters that he was never a drug dealer, that he wasn’t trying to look like a drug dealer and that the whole arrest is a product of what he went through with Bishop Eddie Long. “You caught me with bud? Look at the sign of sexual abuse victims. What’s the very first sign on any website you’ll see? Alcoholism drug abuse,” Jamal said. As for recovering from his whole ordeal, he calls it a work in progress, “I’m still bringing the same demons and nightmares, so now I’m living a lifestyle that’s meant to crash.” He is in therapy to deal with his pain and anger and hopes people will reserve judgment about him.

Jamal said he only got the gun to protect himself after rumors circulated on the internet about millions in settlement money from Bishop Eddie Long. “I read so many comments after I got arrested, but nobody ever took the time to look and say, Yo, what the hell did he do?” said Jamal.

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