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Witness Abuse
By
Joy Lanzendorfer
As Michael Jackson - raised as a Jehovah's Witness - stands trial for
child molestation in Southern California, another controversy involving
the apocalyptic religion and child sexual abuse is unfolding in Napa
Superior Court.
A string of lawsuits accuses Jehovah Witnesses of repeatedly covering
up cases of child molestation. The plaintiffs say that not only were
they sexually abused by church elders, but that other church officials
knew about the abuse and refused to take the necessary steps to report
it, instead, allowing sexual predators to retain positions of power
in the congregation. The alleged abuses span 27 years, from 1970 to
1997.
The Napa case names three plaintiffs, Charissa Welch, 35; Nicole D.,
32; and Tabitha H., 30. They are suing the Napa Congregation of Jehovah's
Witnesses as well as Jehovah's Witness headquarters in Pennsylvania
and New York for an unspecified amount of money.
Originally, Sacramento law firm Nolan Saul Brelsford brought 17 cases
against Jehovah's Witness churches throughout California, including
one in Sonoma County. The firm has dropped 11 cases and the remaining
six lawsuits span several counties, including Napa, Santa Clara, Yolo,
Placer and Tehama. Because the Napa case was the farthest along in the
proceedings, the lawsuits were co-ordinated and are now being tried
in Napa as one large case.
Attorneys for the Jehovah's Witnesses deny the cover-up.
"The church abhors child abuse,"
says defence council Robert Schnack. "And
it denies any liability in these cases, both factual and legal."
So far, the church has lost two motions in court. First, it claimed
its status as a religious institution protects it from lawsuits under
the First Amendment. Then it claimed it could not be held responsible
for what its members did. On April 8, it is expected to argue that church
officials had no knowledge of the abuse.
In the Napa case, the alleged abuser was church elder Edward Villegas,
who was convicted for child abuse in 1994 and died in prison soon afterwards.
Much of the abuse happened in the 1970s and 1980s. During that time,
Villegas operated a church-sponsored daycare.
The complaint claims that the church not only knew about the alleged
abuse, but "intentionally concealed" it from the police and the congregation
and "continued to place Edward Villegas in positions of authority where
he could abuse children while pursuing activities within the scope of
his appointment."
In 1970, Charissa Welch, then an infant, was placed in Villegas' daycare,
which the church used to attract new members. Welch's mother, Betty
Hopkins, converted to the religion soon afterward. According to the
complaint, when Welch was three or four years old, Villegas allegedly
began molesting her by "fondling her genitals, penetrating her vagina
and forcing her to have oral sex." The abuse lasted 13 to 14 years.
Tabitha H. alleges that she endured similar abuse by Villegas from 1977
to 1980.
In 1971, Nicole D.'s family met Villegas through a church function.
Nicole was placed under the elder's guidance. Her family even spent
time at his home. In 1978, when Nicole was seven, he allegedly forced
her to have oral sex with him.
According to the complaint, Nicole told her father about the abuse.
He immediately informed the church. The elders removed Nicole from Villegas'
care, but allegedly "took no other steps to hold him accountable or
to otherwise notify members. . . . Instead, they intentionally concealed
this information. Therefore, Edward Villegas was able to continue to
use his position of authority."
The three plaintiffs say they were told they should let the elders handle
the abuse. The complaint also says the church keeps "secret archival
files regarding sexual abuse" by leaders. By not involving the police
and keeping Villegas in charge, the plaintiffs are arguing that the
church assumed a level of liability in the abuse.
The Jehovah's Witness church hierarchy has three levels. The first level,
pioneers, are the familiar members who go door-to-door attempting to
convert people. The second level, ministerial servants, are men who
act as deacons, doing grunt work for the church. After three years,
a ministerial servant can advance to the third level, elder. The elders
make up the church's governing body.
"Elders are viewed as a direct representation
of God on earth," says Bill Bowen, a former
Jehovah's Witness elder. "To question an
elder is to question God."
Because elders develop a trusting relationship with members, they take
on the responsibility of protecting and moulding character and behaviour,
especially in the case of children, says attorney Bill Brelsford, who
represents the plaintiffs.
"The church takes these children and trains
them in how to act," he says. "Through
this undertaking as an organization, it has a certain responsibility
here."
The Napa cases are not the only ones. In fact, lawsuits accusing Jehovah's
Witnesses of covering up child abuse have been popping up all over the
country. Spearheading the lawsuits is Texas law firm Love and Norris,
which initially approached Nolen Saul Brelsford about the California
cases.
Bill Bowen was an elder at a Jehovah's Witness church in Paducah, Ky.,
when he learned that a fellow elder had molested a child. He reported
the incident, but the other leaders told him that since the elder claimed
the abuse happened only one time, nothing should be done about it.
"I spoke to the victim and found out it happened
multiple times and places, and that the current allegations pointed
to another child," Bowen says.
"I said to them, 'Look, apparently he lied to us,
there's even physical evidence pointing to another child,' and
they said, 'Well, he denied it, so we have
to leave it in God's hands.'"
Bowen went to all the other leaders and even wrote Watchtower headquarters.
Eventually, he was told that though the church would remove the man
as an elder, Bowen was not to report the crime to the police. In response,
Bowen officially resigned as an elder, went to the police, and then
started a website, SilentLambs.org, to help Jehovah's Witnesses who
have been sexually molested.
As is its custom with all so-called heretics within its ranks, the church
excommunicated or "disfellowshipped" Bowen. Family and longtime friends
soon started shunning him.
"I haven't spoken to my parents or sister
in three years," he says. "If
I had any contact with them, they would be disfellowshipped, too."
Over 1,000 people have reported on SilentLambs.org that Jehovah's Witness
members allegedly sexually abused them. According to the site, inside
sources at the Watchtower office in New York say it has a computer database
of reported incidents of child abuse that lists nearly 24,000 child
molesters.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York did not respond to
interview requests for this article.
Bowen believes that child abuse within the church began as a small problem
and has gotten worse over time.
"It probably started out somewhat like it
was with the Catholic Church, with the church thinking if we ignore
this problem, it will go away," he says.
"But it hasn't. And the Jehovah's Witnesses
are nastier about it than the Catholic Church was, especially to abuse
survivors. They know that if they don't cover it up, it will expose
major problems in the religion."
The allegations against the Jehovah's Witnesses are different from the
Catholic Church in several ways. For one thing, with just 1 million
members nationwide, there are far fewer Jehovah's Witnesses than the
60 million-member Catholic Church. For another, with its door-to-door
conversion policy, a sexual predator who is a Jehovah's Witness has
more contact with the public at large.
While the church's responsibility in these cases is still up for debate,
in some cases - such as with Villegas in Napa, who was convicted of
molestation - the abuse is not. At the very least, Bowen feels the Jehovah's
Witnesses should make more of an effort to protect its congregation.
He says that in 1992, church members made recommendations to the New
York office for a new policy dealing with child molesters. The policy
stated that elders should report the abuse to the police first, that
abusers should be removed from positions of responsibility within the
church and that abusers should not be allowed to go door-to-door.
"That was in 1992,"
Bowen says. "To this day, not one of those
recommendations has been followed up on."
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