The president of a Southern Baptist university in Georgia reportedly ignored for years allegations a senior official groomed and sexually abused at least one female co-ed until police stepped in seven years later.
A former staff member claims he told Emir Caner, presidente de Truett McConnell University (TMU) in Cleveland, Georgia, about accusations concerning Bradley Reynolds, a longtime academic services VP at TMU as early as 2016. But Reynolds remained on staff until last year.
The TMU administration also did not act on a 2019 petition signed by 50 female TMU students complaining about Reynolds’s behavior.
Reynolds allegedly singled out Hayle Swinson, a student athlete, for special attention and “discipled” her in “classes” held in the basement of his home.
During the course of what Swinson later said was a years-long “grooming” campaign, Reynolds told Swinson his wife would die, so that he and Swinson could marry. Reynolds sent Swinson about 300 emails, which El Informe Roys (TRR) has obtained, some describing in detail his “wet dreams” about the coed.
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When praying after their one-on-one “discipleship” sessions, Swinson said Reynolds touched areas of her body inappropriately, progressing to what Swinson said was digital rape. She described the ordeal in a 57-page dossier given to TRR, which was prepared by Swinson’s lawyer Marcia Shein and friend and investigator, Stephanie Schuessler.
Swinson also recounted her ordeal in a recent podcast interview with TRR’s Julie Roys.
“I was groomed, I was confused, I was targeted,” Swinson told Roys. “I felt isolated, like I was alone. . . . It took, and it has taken, and it will take years of my life to unwind every lie that was told to me.”
Swinson, who attended the school on an athletic scholarship and was later hired as a soccer coach there, said she suffered emotional trauma from the sexual abuse and became suicidal.
TRR contacted TMU, a 79-year-old school affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, for comment. We also attempted to locate and contact Reynolds.
TMU did not make Caner available for comment, despite two requests made two weeks apart. TMU also did not respond to specific questions about the 2019 petition.
Instead, Jason Graffagnino, the school’s Vice President for Finance and Operations and Chief Financial Officer, said via email, “TMU has aggressively and proactively implemented policies that protect all students, including regular reviews of Title IX policies by outside counsel.”
Graffagnino added, “There had been no previous Title IX or HR complaints filed related to this matter. Had TMU known of this behavior earlier, Reynolds would have been immediately dismissed.”
A predatory pattern
Swinson says Reynolds, hired in 2009, used his dual roles as pastor and university administrator to gain access to female athletes, particularly Swinson. She referred to her alleged abuser by the initials “BR” in the dossier given to TRR.
“Immediately upon (Reynolds’) and his family’s arrival on campus, their family befriended the women’s soccer team. . . . BR consistently told the girls, ‘Our home is open to you. If you need to do laundry, if you want a home-cooked meal, or a place to get away from campus, you can come to our home,’” Swinson stated.
Swinson said she initially viewed Reynolds and his wife as “a godly Christian family.”
New in her faith, Swinson told Reynolds of her recent baptism. She said he then offered to “disciple” her. Swinson wrote that she accepted because she was “eager to learn and study the Bible.”
The weekly Bible studies held alone in Reynolds’ basement allegedly turned into a calculated grooming effort, she said: The two “were always alone . . . at the end of every study session, BR would pray for Hayle.”
In 2013, Reynolds told Swinson in an email to keep the relationship under wraps: “Obviously, God gave us our friendship, but others may not understand it and thus please keep this between us.”
What began as spiritual mentorship allegedly escalated into abuse, Swinson wrote in the dossier.
“Over time, BR progressed from just holding hands while praying to his arms around her, his arms around her back to rubbing her back, his hands on her back that eventually moved to her chest . . BR always told Hayle ‘this is from God.’ . . . BR continued to progress and started placing his hands in her pants and eventually penetrated her. During these instances, she begged, ‘Please no,’” the document states.
Reynolds justified the abuse with a distorted “betrothal” theology: “It is a time of commitment which allows some freedoms apparently because there is a commitment (vow) to God . . . one acts not out of selfish reasons but to try and bless the other,” Reynolds wrote in an email in 2015.
Swinson’s counselor, Mary Beth Pierce, documented her trauma in notes included in the dossier: “Hayle Swinson . . . reported having flashes of terror and disturbing memories . . . of abuse from her boss and pastor . . . around 2013. She reported feeling rage, disgust, numbness, terror . . . she realized she had been ‘manipulated and preyed on.”
In 2021, Swinson hit a crisis point. Friend Ashley Graves recalled receiving a chilling text: “Ashley, I need your help. I have a knife, and I’m about to use it.”
In a message to Reynolds, Swinson wrote: “I feel like a victim. It’s been a continual process for a while. Every time I’m touched. To me it is wrong. It has been wrong. It will be wrong.”
The grooming continued via email. Between 2013 and 2018, Reynolds reportedly sent Swinson around 300 messages, some including graphic content. A 2015 message read: “The (dream) last night was incredible and REAL. So real it was a wet dream. . . . I had taken you to the most incredible climax you had ever experienced . . . I exploded and woke up and I had literally exploded.”
In 2018, after years of confusion over the abuse, Swinson told TRR God gave her clarity about what Reynolds was doing to her and she ended the relationship.
Swinson said in the podcast interview, “There was a moment that something clicked where I, on my own, separate from the manipulation, had abided in the Lord and I knew enough truth about who my God was. And I finally was like, that’s not God. That is not God.”
In 2021, after years of emotional torment and suicidal thoughts related to the abuse, Swinson sought counseling. At the urging of her counselor, Swinson reported Reynolds’s sexual abuse to law enforcement in February 2024. Though forensic analysis contradicted Reynolds’ denials that the emails to Swinson came from an account he owned, no criminal charges were filed.
TMU fails to respond to student petition concerning Reynolds
Other TMU students corroborated Reynolds’s alleged patterns of inappropriate behavior.
Abbey Thompson Booke called Reynolds “very touchy,” adding, “Once a player was comfortable with holding Reynolds’ hand, his touching progressed to Reynolds placing his arm around the players’ shoulders.”
Another student named in the dossier, but who asked for anonymity from TRR, also raised alarms: “I heard many rumors regarding Dr. Reynolds and inappropriate behavior with students . . . especially athletes,” and described an uncomfortable chapel service: “The entire ‘sermon’ (in chapel) was about sex . . . The service made everyone very uncomfortable.”
In 2019, more than 50 female students signed a petition objecting to Reynolds’ theology class, where they were required to write trauma testimonies and meet privately with him. The petition was delivered to TMU’s Student Development office, said Booke, who worked there at the time.
Booke explained, “The purpose of the petition was either 1) to remove Reynolds from teaching the theology class or 2) to provide permission for the students to say ‘no’ to his private meetings.”
No action was taken and apparently the female students were forced to comply.
The school’s leadership allowed Reynolds to avoid discipline for many years, the dossier states.
“The faculty members were ‘hush hush’ when it came to Reynolds,” Booke said. “Reynolds believed he was above reproach.”
Calls for accountability at TMU mount
One former TMU employee, who said he raised concerns about Reynolds with Caner, was not only ignored but pressured to leave the school over a minor financial infraction: the inadvertent use of a school credit card for a personal item.
Jonathan Morris, the now-former employee, said he was given the option of resigning or being fired after he reported his error, even though he immediately reimbursed the school.
As the university’s former Title IX coordinator, Morris says he alerted Caner in 2016 after seeing Reynolds and Swinson enter Reynolds’ home where they remained for more than 30 minutes. Morris said Reynolds’ wife and children were not present at that time.
According to Morris, whose statement is included in the dossier, the president’s initial response was striking: “God help me if I don’t respond to this appropriately.”
But later, Morris said, Caner told him, “You no longer need to pay attention to Reynolds.” No discipline was imposed on Reynolds until a 2024 police investigation — by which time both Morris and colleague and former TMU Vice President Chris Eppling had left the school. Morris claims both their departures were forced after they voiced concerns about Reynolds’ behavior.
A Nov. 1, 2016, email from Reynolds to Swinson supports Morris’ claims. In it, Reynolds notes that “someone has driven over here (Reynolds’ home) during lunch hours to see your Jeep here. . . . Emir (Caner) did promise to tell Chris (Eppling) that any more gossip like that will result in the person saying it being fired.”
Swinson and her supporters accuse university leadership of enabling a “culture of silence,” despite mounting complaints.
The police investigation in 2024 did not result in charges, at least in part because the statute of limitations had expired, a Swinson attorney told TRR.
But during the investigation, Reynolds informed the school he was under investigation by the White County Sheriff’s Office, regarding a relationship with an alumna who was employed at TMU while pursuing her graduate degree.
The school placed him on leave and ultimately, Reynolds resigned. He reportedly is not currently involved in either Christian education or pastoral ministry.
But Swinson and her advocates say they’re frustrated Reynolds was not fired and publicly exposed by TMU. They’re also calling on TMU’s Board to hold Caner responsible for his failure to protect Swinson and others.
A 2024 letter from Swinson’s attorney Marcia Shein to TMU’s Board of Trustees stated: “TMU President Emir Caner failed to act when he was made aware of the inappropriate relationship . . . Had due diligence been taken . . . other female students would not have experienced harm.”
Shein said the TMU officials did not respond, but a university attorney did.
According to Shein, “The school’s lawyer met with me in February 2025 and we talked about a resolution to help Haley however, neither the school, the Trustees or the attorney for the school got back to us to find a fair and reasonable solution to my discussion with the school attorney. The school Trustees never contacted us or even Haley on their own to investigate the matter further.”
Speaking on the TRR podcast with Julie Roys, Swinson said she believes TMU needs a change in both leadership and procedures.
She added, “My prayer is that my story and the stories of other victims that were discovered over the last decade at Truett McConnell University would no longer be dismissed but heard, so that it will help make it possible for no other girl to be a victim on this campus ever again.”
Click graphic below to watch or listen to The Roys Report podcast interview with Hayle Swinson:
Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the Correo de Nueva York and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for el tiempo de washington. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.
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18 Responses
Emir and his brother Ergun are con men. Look it up, because you will have a hard time believing anyone takes them seriously.
It has been a while since the names of those two frauds and sociopaths showed up. But like cockroaches and bad pennies, they keep showing up.
It’s SO sickening to hear yet another case of men in Christian institutions abusing innocent people in their care – people they’ve trusted and respected only to find that the person turned out to be a predator wolf in sheep’s clothing. And to make matters worse, the wolf has a “buddy” to conveniently cover up for him! Haley, although very painful and traumatic, you are a brave woman to expose what has happened to you. Take back your life through whatever means are at your disposal to hold the wolves accountable.
If I remember correctly, Brad Reynolds was also his wife’s youth pastor before they were married. His history of grooming and abuse is a long one.
One of the statements that BR told Swinson that caught my eye which really concerned me was this one at the beginning of the article. “Reynolds told Swinson his wife would die, so that he and Swinson could marry. Is his wife still with him? Nevermind all the affairs. I would believe her life is in jeopardy. He could coerce one of his victims to help him harm her.
Emir Caner is a very nice man, good father, and fine Baptist minister. But when it comes to leadership training, he was one of Paige Patterson’s “pups.” That’s what Patterson affectionately called the younger men he mentored and installed into leadership positions when he was president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Emir studied and worked at both The Criswell College and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary during periods Patterson led those schools. In 2005, the then-35-year-old Emir Caner was chosen by Patterson to be dean of The College at Southwestern, the seminary’s then-new undergraduate college. Those readers who have ears to hear and eyes to see can connect the dots in how Caner might have chosen to respond to these specific types of reports from this specific type of reporter.
There has been changes in leadership for mishandling issues at the SBC due to listening to lawyers instead of God’s word. Clearly leadership at TMU didn’t get the memo. The recent TMU response is evidence of listening to lawyers. TMU needs to answer this question to survive as an institution. Why should I trust TMU with keeping my daughter (granddaughter) safe?
Atrocious behavior.
Not that this is my primary takeaway, but what’s with the use of “co-ed”/”coed” to describe a woman? What is this, the 19th century?
The real question goes to Hayle. Why did you continue going to “private meetings” in his basement? Why did you not report him when it first made you uncomfortable? Why did you not have the police investigate 12 years ago? Where are your emails? I would love your side, on why you’re standing up now instead of 10 years ago or even 5? Instead you let possibly other girls fall victim because you did not do it in proper time, so do not expect proper accountability when you don’t help hold it in the first place, WHERE ARE YOUR EMAILS
Several of the emails are linked in the article and TMU have had them for some time. However, your comment betrays an ignorance of how adult clergy sexual abuse (ASCA) works. I encourage you to listen to this podcast with Dr. David Pooler, a Baylor professor and expert on ACSA. https://julieroys.com/podcast/understanding-adult-clergy-sexual-abuse/
is this demonic? or is it just me?
Per Merriam Web:
Coed
n
: a female student in a coeducational institution
Free Dic:
co·ed or co-ed (kō′ĕd′)
n. Often Derogatory (does not give a reason for this statement)
A woman who attends a coeducational college or university.
adj. Informal
1. Of or relating to an education system in which both men and women attend the same institution or classes; coeducational: a coed university.
2. Open to both sexes: a coed dorm; a coed pool.
AI:
coed /kō′ĕd″/
sustantivo
A woman who attends a coeducational college or university.
What is the Newspeak that has been approved by the ministry of truth to denote female vs male students/interactions, that does not offend?
TMU promptly posted a response on FB yesterday (5/30/25) Those interested in this incident should read that as well.
Praying for justice and healing.
Proverbios 18:17
Daughter attended in Fall ’22. My wife began her second battle with cancer in January ’23 which brought my daughter home for TMU’s online curriculum during that semester. In Fall ’23 she started the nursing program at a local college and never looked back. Never thought i would find reason to thank the Lord for that period of our lives. Praise be to God.
May the Lord restore Haley’s life and the lives of all affected by it; may justice for wrongdoing be swift and severe. This will not end well and TMU will never be the same.
I’m shocked, sad and angry all at the same time. My daughter went to Truett McConnell during the time all this was going on. She had Reynolds for 2 theology classes and she went to his church some. How can people do these kinds of things and the president and others cover it up. They are all guilty!! God help us!! Praying for the young lady.
The biblical pattern is that men disciple other men, women disciple women. There is no justification for a man and a woman to be alone together in complete privacy for the purpose of “discipleship”. Naive and idealistic young people falling under the influence of a predator masquerading as a shepherd: sickening.
ALL Christian schools, churches, organizations etc should follow the rule Billy Graham’s ministry team and he all followed about not ever being alone with a person of the opposite sex other than their own spouse. if these institutions instituted and followed that policy, a lot of this type of abuse would disappear. as a childhood sexual trauma survivor, shame and woe to those covering this up as well as the perpertrator and Bravo for the brave victims coming forward and sharing their truth. Thank you to agencies like the Roys Report for exposing and holding accountable those in authority who most certainly know better.
This, like all media outlets are ways of getting the news out about things that the public needs to be made aware of, however all sides need to be heard. First, everyone is taking information from two employees who were presumed to be forced to leave their said job, that as we all know, the DEI was still in effect, so forcing one out or firing someone without probable cause was prohibited. We call those disgruntled former employees. If they knew of the abuse going on and never said anything or took it to a higher platform and never persuaded the abused to report it to local authorities, then they are as guilty as the accused. Why are they just coming out now to report it and what was their involvement at the time.
I am a sexual abuse survivor and was sexually abused for much of my preteen years. Not once, not ever have I said that I ended my relationship with my abuser. It wasn’t a relationship. It was torment. This article jumps all over the place with different dates and it is hard to pinpoint when the abuse started and when it ended. Was the coaching job accepted during or after the abuse? After I turned 18, I made sure to distance myself from my abuser. I never seen him again. This was a family member so for me keeping away from him was not easy but I did it. That is why I question about the job. I am not saying what this young lady went through didn’t happen, I just question the way that it is being presented. One has to be able to justify what is being put out to the readers.