THE TRAGIC TRUTH

THE SCARLET LETTER

My name is Jonathan Lim and you may have heard or read that in 2013, I was accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 17 year old minor.

This unequivocally was and is not true.

If you have not heard this about me, well, then now you are aware of an extremely painful and humbling season of my life.

I have never had the chance to share the truth of the events to anyone in detail.  The court never granted me a preliminary hearing, nor any type of trial for that matter.

The truth is that I took a deal.  I was advised by certain legal counsel that it was best to plead to charges that I did not commit for the sake of a "deal" if I wanted to relief myself from incarceration as soon as possible, which I did not understand and still do not understand in my limited scope of justice.  However, I did submit to this proposal of a deal because I was afraid.... and desperate... and I was willing to spend 30 months in jail instead of what I was threatened, which was 30 years.  30 months or 30 years, of which I had done 9 months of the time already so...  21 MONTHS or 30  years..  Honestly, I felt like I was desperate enough to do anything to get out of jail...in retrospect, I wonder if I should have took the case all the way to trial, but in the end, I was desperate and drained and the "deal" is just what happened.

I've never had the chance to share my story publicly.  It was probably better that way because I have been very angry for a long time, and even now, feel emotional recalling and writing about the moments past.

Prison was indeed a PTSDesque experience, yet the best, worst experience of my life.  It ushered in a deep and long season of suffering drawing forth deep repentance in from pride, vanity and self righteousness.

I have no other place to voice my story and defend myself because mainstream media took to the hills with this story that was blown up by  a certain unprofessional detective in San Ramon.

People may or may  not believe the story and that is truly a personal prerogative, however, I have to share my story so that at the very best and noble of intentions, lies will not be taken as truth.

Because in no way were my actions anywhere near the definition of "kidnapping", in fact, there was evidence that was never presented in court, proving the utter opposite of "kidnapping"

Nothing that I did can be considered or categorized as "sexual assault" towards the homeless lady or towards her daughters that I and members of our ministry dedicated 6 years to help raising and ministering to this homeless family from the battered shelter.   Yes, there is an explanation, which involves my angry evicting of this homeless lady from our property after some painful discoveries of this woman who was later discovered to be a scam/con-artist, with a history of con-artistry.  If you would really like to know the details please contact me personally, but I'm just making sure it's out there in the world, the fact that I have never kidnapped anyone or sexually assaulted anyone in my life.

YET, various media avenues such as NBC, ABC and newspapers throughout the entire country, popularized and magnified this horrific and tragic issue by projecting and imposing the "child molesting priest or pastor" persona upon the situation , thus desecrating the name of Christ and the Church and polluting the avenues of ministry to which I was connected.  This fact, being my greatest sorrow and my most deepest regret for being part of such a travesty through my anger and pride.  I am so sorry and filled with remorse for bringing dishonor to the name of Jesus.  From that sorrow, I have truly been humbled and desire to live a life a repentance.

I am still healing, mending and being made.  I still process the shatters of life that broke through that event.  But I know it's in the Holy Fire of the Potter, who will mold it for HIS purpose and glory.  Without making the blog too "extra", I will leave it right here and ask that if  you could, please pray for me.

Thank you