Jehovah’s Witnesses have a child sex abuse problem. JWs have a problem because Watchtower teaches elders to keep the abuse secret. That’s right! You read that correctly: WATCHTOWER TEACHES ELDERS NOT TO REPORT CHILD MOLESTERS But don’t take my word for it. I’ve included the testimony from Watchtower’s representative, Doug Chappel. You can read it
In September of 2018, a jury in Montana awarded a $35 million verdict against the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I was the lawyer that represented the victim and obtained that verdict. Here is what we proved at trial: In 2004, two victims of child sex abuse notified church leaders that a church member had sexually
The tragic reality is that stories involving the sexual abuse of young children have become disturbingly common in our society. Stories of massive sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic church, LDS and FLDS churchleaders being involved in major child abuse scandals, and school teachers engaging in inappropriate behavior with their students can make it easy for people that
A member of the LDS community in Pleasant Grove, Utah was arrested this weekend after confessing to 85 individual counts of sexual abuse against children. Police are reporting that the abuser, 33-year-old Andrew Bishop, turned himself over to authorities and admitted to his terrible crimes after being confronted by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ
More than 400 victims recently filed claims of child sexual abuse against the Archdiocese in federal bankruptcy court. In this latest major lawsuit pertaining to child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is being held accountable. They now face hundreds of individual claims by former victims,
On Tuesday, August 4th, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee agreed to a $21 million dollar settlement to compensate hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse. This case involved over 575 individual claims of abuse against church leaders in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, many of whom alleged that a systemic lack of prosecution allowed church leaders to abuse minors in
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the FLDS Church, has a long and disturbing history of church leaders engaging in deviant behavior and committing sexual abuse against children in their congregation. The organization’s founder and leader, Warren Jeffs, is currently serving a life sentence in a Texas prison on
On June 18th, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered a unanimous decision in the case of Ohio v. Clark. The Supreme Court’s verdict in Ohio v. Clark offers a final resolution to a case that deals with the right of a young child to identify and testify against their abuser. Many advocates for victims
A 44-year-old Payson, Utah women was arrested this month in connection with the sexual assaults of 5 young men in her care.Katherine Lynn Estep was an employee at the Journey Impact Ranch in Mona, Utah, a facility designed to care for young boys with behavioral issues. The boys that attend the facility are all between
Brianne Altice, a former teacher at Davis High School in Kaysville, Utah, plead guilty in April to three counts of forcible sexual abuse related to charges that she engaged in inappropriate sexual activities with students in her care. Altice, now 37-years-old, was employed at Davis High School as recently as February of 2014. According to her plea
