Back to the original point: There is no question in my mind that dub judicial matters are often handled in a kangaroo court fashion. I saw faders called to a JC after being inactive for many years, simply because a JW relative decided to make a federal case out of it.
One example, from early 1976, concerned an elder who had been heavily promoting the WTS' October 1975 end-date. His daughter had quit high school in '74 in order to pioneer her way into the new system. Sometime in late '75, she began making frequent "return visits" on a college guy she met while going door-to-door. She was DF'd after she moved in with her new "Bible study."
The father was furious about the action. He had a "fleshly" (sorry) brother who had stopped going to meetings in the late 1960s, who lived in another state. Apparently he had associated with our congregation many years back, however the congregation was in an area of rapid population growth and no one seemed to remember the guy. So when an elder announced that so-and-so was no longer one of JWs, those in the audience looked around in a collective "who dat?" moment.
It turned out that elder of the DF'd daughter took the view, "Well, if she's DF'd, my brother deserves it even more" and he forced the issue on the other elders. It was one of those phone call deals where he was asked to come back to his hometown and face a JC and he just laughed them off. So, with the testimony of two witnesses - presumably the elder and his wife - he was DF'd in absentia. There's some irony in the fact that the elder and his wife became so disillusioned over the 1975 fiasco that they soon left the organization themselves.
Sometimes there was simple procedural improprieties:
One such case involved the fleshly brother (there's that phrase again) of an elder. I was a new elder in a small congo and there were only three of us. To my surprise, the third elder on the committee was the guy's brother! I questioned it but he said he could be impartial, and since it was my first JC I figured the other two knew the process better than I.
The guy had a service business which meant he went to customers' homes to do some work. He confessed to banging one of his customers, a women he said was about 50 years of age who came on to him and wanted him to service her as well. This was a guy in his late 20s who was married to one of those virginal Barbie-doll sisters who was 19 or 20. It was difficult to imagine why'd he'd cheat. He was so matter of fact in his confession, I was stunned. The elder who was related to him asked him how he felt about it. He said he felt terrible and was sorry, and that he'd confessed to his wife and she had forgiven him. He swore it had never happened before. I asked him if he ever went back and provided another "service" to that customer. His response: "Only once." Meaning, one additional time.
We asked him to move out of the room while we talked. I thought it was an open and shut case and he should be DF'd. I was over-ruled by the other two. His relative told us, "I know him and he doesn't express himself very well, but believe me, he's really torn up inside." The other elder said, "Since no one knows about it except his wife, this looks like private reproof to me." Case closed.
I could go on all day. Many posters here have similar stories from their elder days.
