An intoxicated Jerry Falwell Jr. had fallen, lost “a lot of blood” and had cuts all over his face after injuring himself less than a week after he resigned as president of Liberty University, a newly released transcript of the 911 call revealed.
Falwell’s wife, Becki, made the call to Bedford County emergency responders on Aug. 30 around 2:30 a.m.
She told dispatchers she had been at church around 11 p.m. when she received a call from her husband, who said he was bleeding after falling down the stairs. When she got home, Becki Falwell said the door was locked so she used a chair to break through the back door.
Once inside, she dialed 911 for help.
When operators asked if Jerry Falwell had been drinking, she said “yes.” When asked if he had been drinking “heavily,” she responded, “I’m not going to answer that question,” according to the transcript obtained by Huffington Post.
The dispatcher then informed Falwell that alcohol thins out blood and could be the reason there was so much at the scene. After explaining that to Becki Falwell, the dispatcher once again asked about the status of her husband.
“The more I tell you the name, the more you’re going to understand why we’re not talking to you right now,” Becki Falwell responded.
Dispatch logs, obtained through a public records request, stated that “[Falwell] won’t let her take him to the hospital as he is stubborn. Caller was not forthcoming.”
Medical responders sent to the Falwell residence said they had observed lacerations on Jerry Falwell’s face, under his left eye, above both eyes and across the bridge of his nose. Falwell told responders he hit his head on a trash can. Blood and “empty alcohol containers” were found near the area Falwell had indicated.
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Officers also noted that Falwell “has slurred and slowed speech and would repeat things already asked.”
Falwell’s relationship with alcohol has been rocky throughout the years. His father, Jerry Falwell Sr., had called alcohol “the worst, most offensive drug in American society.”
When the elder Falwell founded Liberty University in 1971, he prohibited the use of alcohol by students — regardless of whether it was on or off campus, before or after they turned 21, the legal drinking age. Liberty’s anti-alcohol policy is so severe that students are subjected to random breath, blood and urine tests.
With such strict rules in place, it became a nightmare for school administrators, staff and donors when Falwell would allegedly show up on campus drunk. He claims that never happened but also noted that alcohol was not off-limits for faculty.
Falwell’s messy fall from grace came in August following a series of personal scandals.
While much of the world saw him as a rising power in the evangelical world, those closer to his Lynchburg, Va., base of operations knew there was a darker side to the 58-year-old who had a problem with boundaries.
Giancarlo Granda, a former Miami pool boy and Falwell business partner, revealed a series of disturbing flaws that ultimately brought Falwell down, including a yearslong affair with Becki Falwell in which her husband watched. Falwell has denied having anything to do with the affair, but texts, emails and pictures provided to Fox News by Granda seemed to show otherwise.
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Falwell had spent the better part of the last four years cozying up to President Trump — something students and faculty had questioned. Falwell’s business dealings in which he personally profited from Liberty business has also caused alarm.
Liberty University, America’s largest evangelical college, announced shortly after Falwell’s resignation that it had hired an outside forensic auditor to comb through property deals and other moves Falwell made while he was president.
