Does anyone know anything about this?
purps
CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT HITS 6 OREGON WATCHTOWER ELDERS
After XXXXXX sent a link off of justia.com, I found more information on this lawsuit filed December 3, 2008 in federal court in Oregon.
In a federal lawsuit titled “Cole verus Elder Body of Tualatin Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witness et al,� and with case number 3:2008cv01401,Wilma Leah Cole is suing the Elder Body of the Tualatin, Oregon, Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The accused Elders are Tim Myers, Richard Hobbs, George Stanley, Mark Peterson, S. Scott and J. Bear. Presiding is Magistrate Judge Paul Papak.
Also being sued as defendants in the Medical and Dental Fields are Roy Dursife, Alexis Ly, John Smith, Hatch, plus also the Tuality Community Hospital. The hospital or hospital chain has addresses in Hillsboro and Beaverton: http://anywho.yellowpages.com/name/OR/Tuality-Community-Hospital?from=AnyWho and the hospital has a day surgery program.
Trial will be by jury as required under the 42:1983 Civil Rights Act: Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983.Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
Short of getting copies of the papers, only guesses can be applied to what Ms. Cole’s lawsuit involves in terms of whatever its stated allegations may be, and I for one am not an attorney and if you want better guesses or opinions you are advised to speak to one or more.
However, that said, one might guess, for example, that she sustained some manner of injury or loss at a hospital (blood issue?), and it may be that she feels the injury or loss came about as a result of what was done during an operation by attending hospital workers or doctors as well as feel that the Body Of Elders at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Tualatin somehow may have contributed to or caused the injury or loss; conjecturing further: perhaps some manner of false injurious advice or coersion.
While Elders may claim immunity from prosecution under Ecclesiastical Privilege under the U.S. Constitution as part of a hierarchial religious organization, such as the Watchtower Society over JWs, can those Elders’ attorneys rightly say, in view of the 1983 Civil Rights Act, that the Elders are not liable for whatever the Body Of Elders may have done while acting as a “local� Body Of Elders or, as might be claimed, as individual Elders? Or might they be liable under state law but not under federal law or vice versa; and might not being liable under federal law mean they are also automatically not liable under state law or the federal Act???
There is no indication that the Watchtower Society corporation is itself being sued, only the local Body Of Elders. Perhaps Watchtower is nevertheless providing attorneys for the Elders, or perhaps not. Or maybe they are this time, but in similar future cases will not, leaving it up to local and the yet-to-be-formed regional Bodies Of Elders to fend for themselves with their own attorneys.
In short it sounds like the lawsuit series might tend to be complicated and also tend to set some manner of precedent.
News reporters might find the following helpful: To contact the Oregon District Court use 740 The Mark O. Hatfield; United States Courthouse; 1000 Southwest Third Avenue; Portland, OR 97204-2802; Phone: 503-326-8008 Web Site: http://ord.uscourts.gov The Chambers phone number for the Honorable Paul Papak is 503 326-8270. The phone number of his Courtroom Deputy Gary Magnuson is 503 326-8055.
Tualatin is mostly in Washington County, Oregon, just 13 miles south of Portland, also close to McMinnville and Beaverton. McMinnville gained notoriety from two past instances of murder involving JWs and ExJWs as noted in a following article farther below.
Tualatin takes its name from the adjoining Tualatin River which in turned is named for Native Americans. It has a population of about 26,000. Median income for a family is about $68,000. The racial makeup is mostly 87% Caucasian, also Hispanic. Manufacturing businesses produce electrochemicals and musical-sound equipment. Tualatin’s official website is at www.ci.tualatin.or.us/
To see pictures and a map of Tualatin and area click on http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Tualatin&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image
For photos click of Tualatin and area: http://flickr.com/search/?q=Tualatin
Some Oregon newspapers which might want to do stories upon learning of this include for example, Tualatin’s newspaper Tualatin Oregonian Agency West (503 692-8482) and Portland papers The Oregonian (503 968-3162) and King City Oregonian (503 684-0974).
Again, thanks go to XXXXXX for providing the original lead to this story. Being non-attorneys and not directly involved, we find this of great interest and would interested in finding out what happens. I don’t have the time; but maybe someone getting a copy of this or who knows someone who can do more with it will, especially if in or near Oregon.
...OUTLAW
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...OUTLAW