Gospel Artist James Fortune Jailed for 5 Days for Assaulting His Wife

Gospel music artist, producer, choir director, and songwriter James Fortune pleads guilty on Tuesday (March 8) for hitting his wife with a vanity stool.  As a result, the singer will spend 5 days in jail. In addition, he will have to do community service that amounts to 175 hours in total. Cheryl Fortune is James' wife.

Fortune must undergo a "batterer's intervention" program in addition to keeping a distance from Cheryl as part of the conditions of the plea. Fortune has been nominated twice for Grammy Awards, and is a radio personality with hit albums.

The Gospel music artist reportedly hit Cheryl with a stool to a wooden vanity, and slammed his wife against a wall in October, 2014, in their Stafford house. James' wife was heard via her victim's impact statement in court, which urged James to get help with his anger and violence."I hope in all of this you get help. Serious help. Although this probation might be like a slap on the wrist, I hope you look at it as a moment to better yourself and change something within you for your future."

James Fortune is sorry for the grief he has caused his family and his fans. "I wasn't right. I struggled in different areas of my life, but one of my main struggles was being able to control anger," Fortune revealed on the syndicated radio program called The Yolanda Adams Morning Show. "Anger management was an issue for me. I found out as I spent the last year going through therapy and counseling that it's a lot of people's issue."

"Where I was last October, a lot of people did see what was alleged in the news and of course the media just completely blew the whole situation out of proportion," Fortune said on "The Yolanda Adams Morning Show." "But more than that, I needed to work on me."

Moreover, according to Washington D.C. gospel radio station Praise 104.1, Fortune intentionally burned his four-year-old stepson in 2001, causing him to sustain second and third degree burns on nearly half of his body. Fortune pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child and received a six-year period of deferred adjudication, under which he pleaded guilty to the charges in exchange for fulfilling court-mandated requirements within a set amount of time.

The child's biological father sued Fortune in 2012 for $5 million to cover the boy's continued plastic surgery needs, according to the radio station.

While Fortune was grateful that God offered him forgiveness, the singer needed to overcome his anger issues in order to be renewed.

"A lot of times you'll always say what you'll never do but when you can't control your anger anything can trigger and make you do something that maybe you felt like you would never do. For me I ask God, of course I thank God for forgiveness but for me it was more than just forgiving," Fortune said. "I wanted to be better. I wanted to be changed. I wanted God to do something on the inside of me so that my story, my testimony could help someone else."

Fortune is currently seeking therapy which he finds extremely helpful. "(Anger) festers and sometimes you don't even know where it's coming from. That's why what has helped me in therapy is understanding some of the things that have happened throughout my life as a child that has contributed to me being able to have this problem," he said. "I wanted to go to a therapist, I wanted to go to some classes. I still am, I'm still allowing God to finish some work in me."

 

 

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