Donnie McClurkin, the Grammy award-winning gospel singer and pastor, is at the center of an explosive lawsuit filed by a man who says McClurkin abused him for years and once apologized for his actions and claiming that he was a “dirty ‘old man’” via email in 2013.
The lawsuit, filed by Giuseppe Corletto in Manhattan Supreme Court, says he sought out McClurkin in 2003 after reading his autobiography, where he claimed God helped him overcome the “curse” of homosexuality. Corletto was 21 at the time. McClurkin was 43.
Corletto told NBC News that what he initially perceived as mentoring from McClurkin quickly turned into grooming. During spiritual sessions between the two, McClurkin allegedly began to molest Corletto and the events escalated over the years. According to the lawsuit, Corletto started to serve as McClurkin’s assistant and had a difficult time struggling to “process these incidents of sexual abuse, as [McClurkin] was both his mentor and employer, making it difficult for him to speak out about the abuse he had suffered.”
Attorney Greg Lisi, who represents the 66-year-old pastor, denied the claims in the lawsuit, labeling them “categorically false.”
“At no time did Pastor McClurkin engage in any form of sexual abuse, assault, or sexual coercion of Mr. Corletto,” Lisi said in a statement. “The claims set forth in the lawsuit grossly mischaracterize their interactions, which occurred over a decade, and some accusations over 2 decades, ago. All these allegations are contradicted by the real facts.”
After a 2013 incident in a Niagara Falls hotel room, where McClurkin allegedly sexually assaulted Corletto, the pastor wrote an email apologizing for his actions, according to the lawsuit. Corletto said he discovered the email from McClurkin in 2025.
“I didn’t make this up. I wasn’t crazy,” Corletto said. “I felt vindicated in some ways. … He’s literally admitting to his guilt.”
According to the lawsuit, McClurkin wrote: “I am the actual epitome of a desperate dirty ‘old man’. Pawning and groping a young man who is just looking for a friendship and close plutonic [sic] relationship with someone he wants looks to for help, guidance and spirituality. I know I apologized for my wrong attitude from [W]ednesday….but I want to apologize for all of my behavior that has been wrong and put you in a wrong place.”
He continued, “I have no one…and [I] feel it more than ever…but I was horribly wrong trying to force you into something that you were consistently saying no to. I am too old to be like this.”
In his 2001 autobiography, Eternal Victim-Eternal Victor, McClurkin says his uncle sexually abused him at the age of eight, which he believed was the root of his homosexuality.
“A seed had been planted,” McClurkin wrote. “A seed that would be my lot to struggle with for many years to come.”
Corletto says he quit working for McClurkin in 2008, but the singer continued to pursue him, according to the lawsuit. Following the 2013 incident in Niagara Falls, Corletto says he attempted to take his own life and returned to McClurkin’s church before ultimately leaving. His attorney, Thomas Giuffra, hopes the lawsuit will bring Corletto financial compensation, closure and “some measure of justice.”
