Grant Storms denies masturbating in Metairie park, apologizes
Published: Tuesday, March 01, 2011, 6:26 PM Updated: Tuesday, March 01, 2011, 8:11 PM
By Michelle Hunter, The Times-Picayune
Though he admitted to having his hands in his pants, embattled Christian fundamentalist Grants Storms denied Tuesday that he was masturbating in a Metairie park before being arrested.
Storms, 53, addressed the allegations during a news conference in Metairie, one day after his arrest became public. Read the four-page arrest report.
He denied Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office reports that he had confessed to masturbating Friday in the driver's seat of his van while it was parked near a playground at Lafreniere Park, 3000 Downs Blvd., according to WWL radio's video of the news conference.
"I had my hands in my pants," he said. When asked by a reporter what he was doing with his hands, Storms answered, "I don't want to get into all that right now. That will come out in court."
On Friday, Storms was taken into custody and booked with one count of obscenity after two women told deputies they saw him pleasuring himself in the van. He was released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on Sunday because of jail crowding.
One of the witnesses, who parked next to Storms, said that he performed the act while "looking at the playground area that contained children playing," an incident report said.
Storms denied that he was looking at any children and said that he was neither a pedophile nor a child molester.
"The impression is that I was out there exposing myself to them and that's not the case," he said.
Storms said he tends the lawns of several customers near the park and stopped there to relax. He initially told investigators that he had urinated in a bottle in the van instead of going to the restroom.
"In the lawn care business, you carry a pee bottle and I did urinate in the pee bottle and my pants were open and I put my hands in my pants," he said.
Storms, who once called himself a "Christian patriot," gained notoriety for his fervent opposition to Southern Decadence, a three-day gay festival held in the French Quarter during Labor Day weekend. Storms and his followers used bullhorns, and picket signs to protest the festival, which he has said turned the Quarter into Sodom and Gomorrah.
Storms on Tuesday apologized to those he had maligned.
"When I look back, there's a lot of things I would have done differently. I was so proudful(sic). I was very arrogant. I was very mean-spirited at times and I apologize," he said, adding later, "I'll fess up to my shortcomings, and whatever they say against me, they can say it. They have every right now to say it."
He also asked for forgiveness from his wife and four children, admitting that he has a problem with sexually explicit material. Storms said he has surrounded himself with pastors who are helping him.
"I deeply hurt my family," he said. "I let a lot of people down, and you know, I just pray that they can find it within their heart to forgive me."
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