CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Anger welled in Charlotte mom Crystal Nichole as she watched a North Carolina pastor’s sermon.

He would find a rape suspect not guilty if the victim wore shorts or a short dress, the Rev. Bobby Leonard of Bible Baptist Tabernacle in Monroe said in the sermon.

“If you dress like that and you get raped and I’m on the jury, he’s going to go free,” Leonard said in the sermon last summer that only recently circulated on social media.

“I was pissed,” Nichole, 34, said. “This is 2024.”

Beliefs ‘don’t fit in 2024’

Nicole said she was sexually assaulted in 2010 at age 20.

To highlight the falsity and absurdity of Leonard’s claim, Nichole said she was wearing blue jeans when she was attacked.

Nichole said she attended the church’s Tabernacle Christian School for three years. Her grandfather was good friends with Leonard, she said. Her family couldn’t afford the school, and Leonard let her attend for free.

“Pastor Leonard is a very good man,” she said. “He’s very strong in his convictions. But some of the things he believes in don’t fit into 2024.”

She said she’ll join a planned protest outside the church on Sunday morning with her 12-year-old daughter, Aubree Sapp. She hopes her daughter will learn “the importance of speaking out” against injustice, she said.

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