Frederick D. Haynes wired $2K to woman who mailed him topless photo: lawsuit

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Friday, October 09, 2026

Pastor Frederick D. Haynes III, who leads the 13,000-member Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas and is running for Congress, was accused in a 2009 lawsuit of sending $2,000 to a woman who allegedly mailed him a topless photo.

Haynes is the pastor of Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and has her endorsement to succeed her in Texas' deep-blue 30th Congressional District. His former executive assistant, Elizabeth Payne, claimed he told her to wire the money to a female "mentee" named Lisa Harrod for travel expenses, The Washington Free Beacon reports.

In a December 2009 deposition for a racial discrimination lawsuit she filed against the church, Payne said she was opening church mail when she found a card addressed to Haynes that contained a topless photo of Harrod.

Payne also claimed she "witnessed communication of an inappropriate sexual relationship" in emails between Haynes and other women, though she acknowledged she never witnessed any inappropriate activity.

"My supervisor, who was Dr. Haynes, was having these sexual affairs," Payne said in her deposition.

"When Dr. Haynes hands me over $2,000 in cash and asks me to take it down to Western Union and wire it to an individual for travel arrangements […] and this is the same person who was sending the card, I would think it was an affair," she continued.

Payne claimed in the lawsuit that she was fired in August 2008 after Haynes learned she was having an affair with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright, a United Church of Christ pastor, is known as the spiritual mentor of former President Barack Obama, and Haynes has called him an "adopted father."

In his deposition, Haynes neither confirmed nor denied having an affair with Harrod but said he never saw the card with the topless photo. He described himself as her "spiritual mentor" and acknowledged meeting her for lunch in Miami in 2008.

Haynes denied firing Payne over her relationship with Wright and said she was dismissed for poor work performance. The case was settled in September 2010, and the terms were not disclosed.

Haynes launched a bid for Crockett's congressional seat in December 2025, the same day she formally announced her ultimately unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate. His campaign began about three months after he took a temporary break from his pulpit following an undisclosed medical diagnosis.

Haynes has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and Israel, including during a sermon he delivered on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel. He is expected to defeat Republican Everett Jackson, a community leader who also goes by the name "Pharaoh," in the general election.